The Problem With Leo Valdez
by Adamus
Summary: An Eidolon has found it's way onto the ship, and this time it's target is Leo Valdez. Now that the son of Hephaestus is under it's control, the Eidolon plans to eliminate the demigods and bring back two sacrifices to Gaea. How? By causing the Argo II to crash. With the Seven stranded and no way of help, things aren't looking too good for the heroes, and even worse for Leo Valdez.
1. Leo: I :Eidolons in the Night

**THE PROBLEM WITH LEO VALDEZ**

**Disclaimer: thanks Uncle Rick for making such great characters  
>Trials of Apollo comes out next year and I'm pumped<br>woo  
>This story was supposed to take place before Blood of Olympus came out but look where we still are<strong>

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><p><em>((CURRENTLY EDITING THIS STORY, FOLKS))<br>12/11/15  
><em>

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><p>::<strong>Chapter I:<br>**_LEO_

Leo Valdez never claimed he was a smart man. His grades in school were less than satisfactory when he had attended, his teachers had frowned at his lack of ability to focus, and his peers had shriveled in pity whenever he handed his paper back for marking. Still, he should have been smart enough to know that something was wrong.

Ominous hissing sounding from behind his cabin door? It should have been obvious.

Leo Valdez should have heard the sound and investigated. Sure, that was how most people in horror movies ended up dying, but at least they died _trying_. Leo, however, let the clues fly straight over his head. Had he been in a horror movie, he'd be the dumb friend that was the first to go.

"_Is he sleeping?_"Came a timid, wavering voice that didn't seem to have a body to go with it. It didn't seem to be coming from anywhere, really. The hissing droned on in the background.

"_Yes, you fool. But speak any louder and you will wake him!_"A new voice spoke, this time much harsher. It didn't have a body, either.

"_He does not look like the one we search for. There are children of Poseidon and Jupiter aboard this ship, it would be smarter if you-_"

"_The other two are strong enough to resist, you know that! Earth Mother promised that the child of Hephaestus would be the Seven's downfall, do you not remember? Perhaps I should tell her of your uncertainty..._"

"_No, no! My loyalty is unwavering, there is no need to tell mother._" the first voice, it's words trembling.

Leo turned in his sleep, giving a muffled "Go away, Buford" as he shoved his face against his pillow. In an hour or so he'd have to get out of bed and raise the anchor so the _Argo II _could set sail again, but it felt like only five minutes had passed since he closed his eyes.

No, no that wasn't right. Leo mentally counted how long it had been since he flopped down. Thirty minutes, was it? That felt about right.

He had been so desperate to make it to Athens ahead of schedule to impress everyone that the thought of actually sleeping hadn't occurred to him. It took hours of Annabeth's chiding for him to even consider the idea, and then even more time listening to Piper's reasoning that even he, as mighty as he may be, wasn't a limitless machine.

"You're only human," Piper had told him only four hours before. "but right now you're practically a zombie. Look, Leo. You're drooling."  
>Leo Valdez: putting people ahead of himself just to fight the guilt away after he sent his friends tumbling down in to the pits of Tartarus. That had been fun.<p>

"_His energy feels as if he is awake._"Mumbled the timid voice.  
>"<em>Hush! He is asleep.<em>"

Two dark mist figures appeared in the air just then. One was large and swirling, it's colours a dark, sickly green. The other was smaller, less threatening. They wandered closer to where the son of Hephaestus lay.

"_Aha! See?_" Angry Voice said, sounding rather proud of itself. "_The child is completely-_"

Leo yawned and stretched out his arms, then rolled over onto his back and began rubbing his eyes, "Yo, Frank if that's you trying to snea up on me or somethin'..." he mumbled, his words rolling off into a snore.

The smaller, shakier figure drooped in the air. "_He does not seem like the warrior type... are you positive he will work?_"

"_Yes! Now be quiet! The act requires great concentration!_" Angry Voice scolded.

"_I just fear... he does not seem to be capable of what we need from him._" Worried Voice worried.

Leo twitched in his sleep. "Dude, stop talking... trying to sleep." he grumbled, now sounding a little bit more awake than he had before. "Are we being attacked again? Those stupid... thing-a-ma-whats..."

Worried Voice's mist cloud swirled frantically. "_He is but a child._"

"_A powerful child, you fool! If you are only set on criticizing the plan, then why have you come?_" Angry Voice snapped. "_You are the opposite of helpful to me. I know what I need to do without your fussing._"

"_Get on with it, then!_"

"Uhg, how many times do I have to-" Leo growled, beginning to sit up in his bed just as the larger dark figure swooped towards him. The second the mist creature and the demigod made contact, the figure vanished and Leo went limp. He slumped back towards the mattress without a hint of fighting back, and layed there for a few moments, unmoving. The remaining mist figure floated forwards. The boy looked as if he were dead.

"_Brother?_" it asked, voice shaking. "_Brother, did it work?_"

After a few long seconds of deafening silence, Leo's face scrunched up and his eyes flickered open. He looked nearly the same as he had before, but the difference was in his eyes. The former dark brown had changed to a bright golden colour, seemingly glowing in the dark as they examined the room.

"_He is odd._" The boy stated, the voice sounding from his mouth was no longer his. "_Very unbalanced._"

"_What does that mean?_" Worried Voice asked.

The boy, Not-Leo, stayed silent as he held out his hands infront of him and examined them. A sly grin made it's way on to his face, mixing with his glowing eyes to create something new; something sinister. He flexed his fingers, and Worried Voice watched in awe as his grin grew with delight.

Wild flames danced from his fingertips, casting dancing shadows on the walls.

"_It means,_" Not-Leo said darkly. "_That he is an easy one to control. Leave now and tell Earth Mother of my success, will you? I plan to be finished with this business shortly._"


	2. Leo: II :Illusions in the Morning

_**THE PROBLEM WITH LEO VALDEZ**_

_Disclaimer: Thanks Uncle Rick for making cool characters_

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><p><em>THIS STORY IS CURRENTLY BEING EDITED<br>SORRY FOLKS COME BACK WHEN THE PLOTLINE MAKES SENSE  
>1211/15  
><em>

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><p><strong>CHAPTER: II<strong>  
><strong>LEO<strong>

_**Illusions in the Morning**_

Leo had woken up with some awful headaches before, but this one was by far the worst. Pain shot through his skull, reaching out and attacking the rest of his brain. Ringing screeched in his ears. He groaned and brought his hands up to his temples, trying to get it to stop.

Of course, it didn't do anything.

Leo layed still in his bed, exhausted. His eyes drifted over to the electronic clock that he kept on his dresser, and disappointment washed over him when the time flashed 5:14am. How could it still be so early?

"Give me a hand, Hypnos." Leo muttered, squeezing his eyes shut. He didn't really mean it, and with a tired sigh he forced his eyes back open and slowly began to pull himself to his feet.

It was then did someone begin to furiously assult his cabin door with their knocking.

Leo jumped at the sudden noise, surprised at it, then recoiled when the banging only added kindle to his headache. _Stop_, he willed it, though to no avail. _Stop. Stop stop stop._ Maybe if he ordered it to enough times, it'd get sick of him and leave him alone.

"What do you want?" Leo called out, tossing the blankets off of him and groggily walking over to the door so he could open it. His feet crunched on crumpled up pieces of paper and dull pencils that he had at some point thrown on the floor, but he didn't pay much attention to the mess. He'd get around the cleaning the room eventually. When he actually had time to.

Why was anyone awake, anyway? He knew of Percy and Annabeth's strolls through the ship, though no one else had their exception. They seemed to be getting as much sleep as him recently, which was to say hardly any. He figured it was nightmares. Sometimes when he walked past their cabins he'd hear them shouting things at their dreams, though he never got more information than that.

Leo felt the guilt begin eating at his stomach again. He was probably the last person they wanted to talk to about that sort of stuff.

The boy sighed and swung the door open, expecting to see a familiar face. Instead, he was greeted with the pleasnt friend that was no one. He looked behind him in case Buford had been the one throwing a fit in the hall, but the table was nowhere to be seen.

_No one _was seen.

Leo's brow furrowed, frustration and confusion fusing together in his already too hard of working mind. "Bet it was Jason." he said to himself, swinging the door shut again and turning back towards his bed. He could imagine his friend acting all giddy with Piper, who no doubt would try to fit some humor in to his life. The two of them were awful at pranks, really. Leo took the opportunity to mention it to them whenever he could.

Leo was the funny guy one the ship, and Jason... well, he was a blond version of superman with worsening eyesight and far more concussions. It was just better if the two stuck within their own categories.

Leo rolled his eyes, tapping his fingers rapidly on his pajama pants as he thought. As much as he would have loved to blame bland humor on Jason and Piper, he surely would have heard them running off down the hall. He wasn't deaf. People running weren't silent.

He scowled, then turned back towards the door a second time and pulled it open. His eyes darted left, then right, then instinctively he glanced behind him again before slamming the door shut. He was being paranoid, Leo reasoned with himself. This was what happened to people who didn't sleep.

He kicked at one of the crumpled pieces of paper on the floor with his foot. The garbage rolled under his bed, sneaking into the shadows that, according to his logic, were secret portals that somehow got rid of the trash in his room. If he couldn't see it, it didn't exist anymore. All problems solved.

Leo shook his head again, as if trying to clear it. The headache persisted, his thoughts remained jumbled, his nerves were all over the place. Sweat began to drip down his forehead, and he felt too hot in his pajamas. He had fire-proofed most of the clothes he wore, but spontaneously sprouting fires still remained to be a horrible source of fun. He needed to cool down. He needed walk. He needed some fresh air.

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><p><em>Tap-tap-tap<em>

Leo walked slowly, trying to fend off the dizziness that was invading his head. He had tried moving fast, but twice already he had fallen over, and he didn't dare risk a third. He didn't think he'd be able to get back up.

He felt sick.

_Tap-tap-tap_

Heat rushed to his face in random bursts. He could feel his shirt clinging to him, held by a disgusting amount of sweat. Did he have a fever? He felt like he had a fever. Where did he keep the medicine supplies? Did he have medicine supplies? Surely he had something stocked away somewhere.

_Tap-tap-tap_

Another wave of wooziness washed over him, making Leo's steps come to a halt. His hands reached out to the wall before he stumbled, and he stood hunched over for a few moments, trying to regain his breath. His lungs were choking him.

_Tap-tap-tap_

Leo froze. Had those not been his steps he was hearing? He clamped his mouth shut and did his best to ignore his lungs as they screamed at him in protest. He needed to listen.

_Tap-tap-tap_

Leo silently swore. He knew, reasonably, that it was probably just one of his friends trying to scare him. Reasonably, there was no way that a monster could get aboard a magical ship that was flying throusands of miles up in the air. Festus would have alerted him. Someone would have killed it by now.

The reasonable part of his brain was failing him however, and Leo couldn't shake the feeling that what was sounding near him _was _a monster.

The boy looked behind him, his body shaking. Whether it was from his fear or his supposed fever, he wasn't sure. It was most likely a poor mixture of both. His eyes narrowed in the dark hallway, trying to pick out something to see.

His heart sank.

There was something there.

Not a monster, or a person, but a shadow. Slick and lean in the darkness, it had no face, no features, no true shape. But it was there, standing near him, quietly watching with eyes he couldn't see.

Leo blinked. When his eyes opened, the shadow was gone.

Was he hallucinating? It would explain a lot, he figured. His brain was fried and now he was behaving like a madman. Cursing under his breath, Leo leaned his head against the wall and sucked the biggest gulp of air he could.

He still needed to get above deck.

Unease bubbled in his stomach as he made an attempt at walking again. He held an unsteady hand out against the wall as he moved, ready to brace himself, and slowly he hobbled towards the stairway.

_One foot, other foot, one foot, other foot. Stop. Don't die. Repeat._ Played over and over again in Leo's mind. He wondered if this was how old people felt when they crossed the street. He decided that he'd never give any of them cold looks ever again.

He was about to take a daring step up on to the first stair when a cold hand found its placed on his shoulder. Leo screamed, startled, and made a pathetic attempt at running upwards.

He stumbled.

"Stay back!" Leo cried, resorting to the loudness of his voice to fend of his attacker. He had heard somewhere that animals didn't like things that were louder than them. He hoped that monsters were the same way.

"How daring!" A familiar voice laughed, breaking Leo's demeniour. The lights in the hall flickered on, and suddenly faces began appearing around him. Piper, Jason, Percy, Hazel.

Leo squinted, his heart pounding his in chest.

"You broke it, Percy." Hazel whined, her glare directed at the boy who was currently experiencing a laughing fit. "You're not supposed to touch him."

Percy took a few moments to catch his breath, then wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The poor guy was freaked out!"

Leo stared at them, trying to make sense of the situation. He slumped against the wall, giving up at the idea just as quickly as he had tried to process it. He doubted he could make sense of anything at the moment, much something as confusing as this.

"The mist?" he croaked. Hazel nodded at him, her excitement showing in her eyes.

"I've been getting really good, huh?"

Leo tried his best to smile and look like he meant it. He wondered how much he failed. "Oh, yeah. I love thinking that I'm going to die. Real nice." he muttered, closing his eyes as dizziness came over him again.

Percy pursed his lips. "Dude, you alright?"

"Totally." Leo said through gritted teeth. "This is what I look like all the time, didn't you know?" His attempt at humor fell short, and not even five words in to his second sentence did his voice bleed out in to a painful groan. "Gimme a minute."

He felt his friends eyes focusing on him, which somehow made him feel even worse.

"Are you sick?" Jason asked, reaching out a hand to Leo. He clasped on to it, then managed a small nod of thanks when Jason helped him to his feet. "You look... awful."

"I couldn't tell." Leo muttered.

"You should go back to your room," Piper suggested, already moving towards him to lend a supporting shoulder. He shook his head, trying to find the right words to refuse.

"No, no. I wanna get some air," he mumbled, but he knew there was no way he could manage up the stairs even with help, and certainly not on his own. He glanced at Piper, his eyes only briefly meeting hers, but in the short second that they did an entirely new feeling came over him. Chills shot down his spine, his stomach seemed to have flipped. His knees gave out, and as he buckled to the floor a faraway hissing began to sound in his ears.

_Charmspeaker... _he thought he heard. His vision growing dark and blurry. He knew Jason was shaking his shoulder, but he couldn't feel the movement. _First the Charmspeaker._


	3. Piper: III :Problems

**The Problem With Leo Valdez**  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunetly- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: Thank you to the people that left reviews! I guess it would have made more sense of the Eidolon had taken Leo straight to Gaea, but I have some stuff planned before the story gets to that part. Maybe a few more chapters?  
>People need to get hurt first before the real heartbreaks can begin, guys.<p>

Also, I need to start memorizing the Roman Numerals. What's after VI?

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><p><strong>Chapter: III<strong>  
><strong>PIPER<strong>

_**Problems**_

"Valdez, can I talk with you for a minute?" Piper's voice rang out as she tried to find her friend. He had told her that he was going to raise the anchor, but the _Argo II _was docked in the sky, not water.

If he was going to lie, he could have at least put some effort in to it.

Still, he had been acting so oddly earlier... it worried her. It wasn't weird for Leo to be... well, _weird_, but running out like that wasn't like him.

"Maybe he went back to bed?" Hazel offered, flicking on the lights in the dining hall as they entered the room. Piper shook her head, a slight frown was visible on her face.

"He's just hiding somewhere."

"You know that he doesn't need to apologize to me, right? I guess I _am _a bit freaky with this whole Mist stuff." The daughter of Pluto admitted, tugging on a few strands of her curly hair as she thought about the situation.

Piper looked down at her, "Being able to control the Mist isn't freaky, Hazel. That'd be like saying my charmspeaking is evil. Besides, what you can do helps us a lot. Remember, you're a big reason why Percy and Annabeth are back."

Hazel lifted her shoulders a little bit, "You think?" she asked, her face beaming.

"Levesque, I _know_." Piper nodded, nudging her friend with her arm, "And Leo does owe you a few words, he's been a grump this morning."

"To be fair I probably scared him."

"The kid slept in sewers, Hazel. Nothing should scare him."

The daughters of Aphrodite and Pluto went silent for a few minutes as the continued to wander around the ship in the search for Leo.

Normally whenever the guy went missing, the first place to check was the engine room. However, when Piper swung open the door the only thing she saw was Buford, Leo's table pet thing that to be honest, creeped her out a bit.

Tables were meant for putting stuff on, not cleaning windows and asking for Pine-Sol.

"...I think he went back to bed." Hazel finally announced, repeating her guess from earlier.

Piper closed the engine room door and rubbed her forehead with her hand. "Where would he _be_?" She murmured, wondering if Leo had built some secret passageways into the ship that no one knew about.

"How about we check his room?" Hazel offered. She now sounded a bit annoyed that the other girl wasn't listening to her, but there was no trace of anger in her tone.

Piper glanced over at her. "I'm sure there's much better places to hide."

"Who say's he's hiding?"

The girl paused and thought for a moment before nodding.

"Let's go check it out, then."

* * *

><p>"You open it." Hazel said, taking a step away from Leo's door and pushing Piper towards it.<p>

Piper lowered an eyebrow. "What, you're scared?"

"No way, but Leo smells enough just as it. Imagine what his _room_ is like." Hazel said, plugging her nose shut with her fingers.

Piper rolled her eyes but cracked a smile, "I didn't need that thought, thanks." she chuckled, reaching out to the doorknob and twisted it so the door would open.

Immediately the two girls stepped back.

"Oh my gods, is it bad?" Hazel asked, squeezing her eyes shut and covering her mouth, "I can't look."

Piper's shoulders drooped. "What did he do...?" The girl whispered, cautiously taking a few steps foward.  
>The smell was awful, that was certain. But the room didn't stink in the way either of them had expected. It smelled like... fire. The burns on the walls, floor, and desk chair looked like Leo had personally attacked all of them.<br>It was if he had 'flamed up' and saw his room as a battle ground.

"Holy Pluto." Hazel gasped as she stepped up besides Piper. "Maybe he sneezed too hard?"

Piper was too busy examining the room to reply to Hazel's comment. The place itself was a complete mess, but the odd thing was that it looked like someone had purposefully trashed it. Papers had been wiped clean off Leo's desk and scattered all over the floor. Pencils had pens had been snapped in half, also covering the floor. Clothing items were burned, diagrams were ripped up.

"Gods, I hope it's not always like this." Hazel remarked, looking at a hand print scorched in the wall.

Piper knew that it wasn't. She had been in the room yesterday afternoon, and back then it had been near spotless. It was like the disaster zone had just happened over night.

"I'm going to talk to Jason." Piper announced, turning back towards the hallway. Hazel quickly caught up with her.

"What? Aren't we kind of busy at the moment?"

"He might know where Leo is, they're best friends."

Hazel made a face. "I always thought _you _and Leo were best friends."

Piper blinked, "They were buddies since Leo came to the Wilderness school, Hazel. That's long before I did."

The daughter of Pluto reached for a strand of her curly hair and began twirling it in her fingers. "Oh, well... I guess some of your memories are still fuzzy thanks to Juno's fantastic plan, but _you've _known Leo longer. Come on, don't you think you have any idea where he is?"

Piper's eyes narrowed. She knew that Hera had toggled with her memories, but meeting Jason and Leo felt so... _real_. Even after learning of the truth that Jason had just been edited in to her life.  
>She had felt like a outsider complete outsider hanging around with the two boys. They acted like they were brothers, she was just the new kid desperate for friends.<br>Dylan had been bothering her none stop since she showed up at the school, though, and all of a sudden Jason and Leo came in and told the guy to knock it off. Leo had actually thrown a screwdriver at him at one point, gods know where he got it from...

It hadn't been real.

"Piper, are you okay?" Hazel asked, snapping the daughter of Aphrodite out of her thoughts.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about where he'd be."

"You know... I guess it doesn't really matter." Hazel said suddenly, shrugging her shoulders. "I mean, he'll show up when he wants to, right? We can ask him then."

Piper frowned. "I'd prefer if he gave an explanation _now_." She sighed, "Honestly I don't know why he'd do this."

"Maybe his power just went wacko for a few minutes?" Hazel tried to reason. "Hey! He might have been acting weird because that's what happened!"

"Maybe." Piper allowed, staring at all the burn marks in dismay. "But..."

Hazel's shoulders sagged, "But _what_?"

"I just- why wouldn't he tell someone?"

"Apparently he thought someone was going to kill him, so..." Hazel reminded her. "Not much time for explaining?"

Piper rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean, Levesque."

"Alright, alright! What do you think happened then, Miss I-Now-Know-Everything?"

"I don't know."

"Well that's certainly helpful." Hazel snorted, folding her arms across her chest. "How about we ask Leo when he shows up instead of getting tangled in it now? He was right about what he said earlier, we need to get to Athens."

Piper sighed, "I know."

* * *

><p>"This is ridiculous." Annabeth growled. She was glaring at the controls to the ship with such frustration that Piper fully expected her to punch one of the screens.<p>

"Hey, just send an Iris Message to Coach Hedge if you're so confused." She offered, reaching for a drachma from her pocket. "Iris can't be too affected by the Greek and Roman stuff, right?"

Annabeth furiously stabbed at a few buttons. "No, I know how to work this, Piper. It's the stupid screens that aren't cooperating."

Piper raised an eyebrow. "The screens?" Last time she checked (which admittedly wasn't often... or at all) ships didn't need screens or computers to function. Especially in the _engine_ room... where the actual _engine_ to the ship was along with other explosive things.  
>Then again, it had to be accounted for that <em>Leo<em> was the one who had designed the thing. Shaking a certain Wii remote would flush the toilets and saying 'turtle' would turn off all the lights, for pete's sake.

"They're not showing what I'm asking them to." Annabeth hissed as she typed something on the iPad keyboard. Seconds after she stabbed 'enter' pictures of kittens popped up on the computer screen in front of her.  
>"Look at that!" Annabeth snapped, clicking off the iPod and shoving it away from her. "What in the name of Athena did Leo do?"<p>

Piper frowned. Leo, unfortunately, was still M.I.A.  
>If he was there with them at the moment, though, Piper was sure that Annabeth would smack him up-side the face.<p>

"Here. Just sent an Iris Message to Hedge asking him what commands to put down." The girl said, taking the drachma out of her pocket and tossing it to Annabeth.

The blonde turned it around in her fingers before leaving the engine room. "He's probably too busy challenging the Ares kids to sword fights..." The daughter of Athena grumbled as she walked out the door.

Now alone, Piper slid into the seat Annabeth had sat in and began typing away at the computer. Surely working a complicated thing such as the _Argo II_ wasn't as hard as it sounded, right?  
>Piper could talk people into giving her cars. Making a fancy little ship agree with her should be a cake-walk.<p>

**404 Bad Gateway**  
>Was what showed up on the screen.<p>

Piper narrowed her eyes and typed the command again.

**Perhaps you meant: **_How many elephants are in a herd?_

Was this really what Leo programmed it to do? Search for _elephants_ of all things?

Sighing, she tried again.

**Hm... so that wasn't it. Let's try again?**

Now Piper was getting annoyed. She typed in a new command, which requested turning on the lights in the mess hall.

**Can't do that! Here, would you like to look at kittens instead?**

A Google webpage popped up on the screen and Siamese kittens were the images that it displayed.

Still optimistic, Piper tried again.

**You would like to access security footage? Here, let's take a look at [_Leo Valdez_]'s room! Hopefully no monsters are attacking, am I right?**

The webpage closed and the video popped up. Since Piper had seen it before, she wasn't surprised when the disaster-zone of a room began playing.  
>It was hardly passing as a bedroom in the first place, Leo had made it worse by adding his own personal touches to it.<p>

Frustrated, Piper leaned back in the chair and uttered a few choice words. She obviously didn't know how to get the system working, Annabeth was having trouble, and Leo was...

Piper's eyes widened when they drifted towards the screen.

"Oh my gods..." She whispered, bolting up from the chair.


	4. Piper: IV :Worries

The Problem With Leo Valdez

Disclaimer: _All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR._  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunately- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: Whoo, quick update! I felt bad about the whole cliff hanger thing, and sorry if this chapter doesn't really live up to your expecatations?  
>No one dies or gets seriously injured is what I'm trying to say.<p>

Also, I don't know if the chapter order with go like: Leo, Leo, Piper, Piper, all the time, but I guess that it's a start. Probably no one else besides those two will have POV's, but please don't get the idea that this story is going to be a 'romance' type thing between Leo and Piper because really it's not.  
>It's about friendship.<p>

Anywho, thanks for the kind reviews(for all the previous). Honestly I didn't expect people to leave them, so it's nice to log in and see that there's some there!

Seriously though does anyone know what's after VI?

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><p><strong>Chapter: IV<strong>  
><strong>PIPER<strong>

**Worries**

Piper didn't stop and explain to Annabeth why exactly she was running like a madman, but it was clear that the daughter of Athena knew what was going on.

"Do you know where Leo is?" Annabeth called, though not following Piper as she ran for the stairs.

"Just focus on getting the controls working!" Piper shouted back, taking a second to stop in her tracks and give a thumbs up to the blonde who had a worried expression on her face.

Sure, Leo was in the middle of throwing fireballs around his room, but Annabeth didn't need to know about that.

Before the other girl could press the conversation further, Piper disappeared down the stairs.

Leo... what did he think he was doing? Sure, he was the one who built the ship and considered himself 'captain', but even he should have known that his fire abilities weren't to be used freely while aboard the _Argo II_.  
>What was he doing using it... again?<p>

Multiple questions raced through Piper's head as she ran to where her friend was. Past the Galley, Frank's room... Percy's room... Leo.

The door, although being open on the monitor, was shut.

"Leo?" Piper said, pounding on the door impatiently. "Valdez you in there?"

Of course he was in there. She had just seen him trying to set his bed up in flames.

"...Valdez!" Piper called, slamming her fist against the wooden door. The surface felt hot, and an instruction about what to do if there was ever a fire at the Wilderness School played back in her mind.

Unfortunately, 'Jump out the window, cupcakes! Every man for himself!' was the only thing her mind deemed worthy to remember.

Piper was about to reach for the doorknob and open the door herself when Leo did it for her from the other side.

"Hi." The boy cautiously, poking his head out.

Piper lowered an eyebrow. "Open the door."

Leo frowned. "That's not a good idea."

"I saw the fire Leo." Piper snapped, pushing the door open and sending Leo stumbling backwards into the knocked over desk chair.

He tried to straighten himself, but was already too unsteady and ending up falling to the floor.

"I didn't say you could come in!" He snapped, quickly jumping to his feet and putting the chair back into it's place at the desk. "Hence why I didn't say '_Hey Piper, come on in!'_ when you knocked."

Piper narrowed her eyes. Nothing in the room was on the verge of burning to ash at the moment. There was no fires, no smoke, nothing aside from the burns on the walls that Piper had already seen.

"What did you do?"

Leo lowered an eyebrow. "A little bit of clarification would help me answer that, you know."

"Leo, I _saw_ you using your fir-"

The son of Hephaestus shot her a cold look that didn't quite suit him. "Were you seriously _spying_ on me?"

Piper blinked. "No! Not intentionally... the computer brought the surveillance video up. Anyway Leo that isn't the point I'm trying to-"

"The ship's system doesn't do anything without being told to." Leo pointed out angrily. "Don't lie to me, Piper."

The daughter of Aphrodite clenched her first. He wasn't having a word of anything she said.

"Could you at least explain these, then?" Piper snapped, pointing her hand to the burnt markings on the wall.

Leo squinted at them as if he had forgotten they were there. "I probably had a nightmare or something and freaked out, no harm done."

"Probably? You mean you don't know?"

The boy sighed. "I don't see why this is such a big deal for you."

"Answer me, please." Piper told him, allowing a bit of charmspeak to slip into her voice. Normally she was against controlling people, but it was obvious that Leo wasn't going to tell her what she wanted to know.

However, as soon as the words left her mouth a look of recognition flashed on Leo's face.

For a second the son of Hephaestus almost looked conflicted, as if he was aware of the charmspeak and wanted to give in, but something was ordering him not to.

"I don't remember." Was his answer. Whether it was honest or not Piper couldn't tell, he didn't even look that sincere as he spoke the words.

Piper was so stuck in her frustration that she wanted to scream. He wasn't telling her anything! What did a simple 'I don't know' get her? She felt like she was forever stuck on Square One, Leo had designing the game to never let her advance.

Honestly, she wasn't sure why all of this mattered. Was it because he had acted rudely to Hazel? The daughter of Pluto could easily sort that out by herself.

Was it the rather offensive joke he had made to Frank? Surely a son of Mars didn't need an Aphrodite kid interfiering.

It sounded lame that her only reason for nagging at Leo at the moment was because he was... what? Acting different? It had only been a few hours since either of them woke up, since his 'different' started. What kind of reasoning was that?

He was _always_ acting different. The kid was constantly changing, switching gears and always on the move _to be_ different.

It was hardly fair to call him out for it.

"Piper," Leo said, snapping the girl out of her thoughts. "I don't know what you're expecting me to say, but I'd appriciate if you left me alone now." Although she felt like the words were supposed to sound genuine, Piper couldn't help getting the impression they were pulled right off a script.

Piper watched him for a few seconds before nodding.

"You're right... I'm sorry."

As she turned around to leave and was just about to walk out into the hallway again, Piper remembered that the ship still wasn't moving.

"Oh! And Leo-" She said, whipping around to face her friend. She stopped talking when a shine caught her eye, like the glittering of gold.

"Yeah, what?" Leo snapped. His face was no longer pointed towards her, so all she saw was the back of him as he pulled the blankets over his bed.

"Annabeth needs help getting the ship moving. Can you-"

"Use the Wii remote that has the blue case."

"But aren't you going to-"

"The A button will start the engines up, and Festus already knows where to go so don't worry about steering or anything." Leo explained, still not looking at her.

She had made him angry at her, hadn't she?

Of course she had.

Piper dropped her eyes to the floor and turned around back towards the hall.

"Thanks."

* * *

><p>Jason and Frank were both alongside Annabeth now, but both of them seemed to be having the same luck with the computer that Piper and her had had.<p>

"Have any of you seen a Wii remote?" Piper asked, scratching the back of her head as she walked up to them.

Frank looked around him and shrugged, Jason cast her a curious look.

"We don't have time to play virtual bowling at the moment." The son of Jupiter told her. "Maybe if we're not all dead within the next few weeks or so, we can have tournament."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "The one with the blue case, you mean?"

Piper nodded.

The daughter of Athena rubbed her forehead and groaned. "Not since yesterday. Percy took it, I think."

Frank blinked. "He told me that it wasn't working."

"Only the A button actually does anything." Annabeth explained without missing a beat, "That way no one would get it confused with the real controllers... oh my gods, Frank, do you know what he did with it?"

"Put it down?"

"Telling me where is what I meant."

"Oh! Yeah, I knew that. He dropped it somewhere on the floor in his room."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Once she was gone, Frank must have gotten the impression that he was the next in line to leave and quickly excused himself.

Jason turned to Piper and looked at her carefully in the eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked. When she didn't answer, Jason put a hand on her shoulder.

"Seriously Piper, are you alright?"

"_I'm _fine..."

"...But...?"

"I'm just worried about Leo." Piper admitted. "He didn't want to talk to me when I went to his room, Jason. He basically just shooed me out."

Jason furrowed his eyebrows. "He's been kind of like that since we found him again-"

"It wasn't as bad as that, though! If you had been with me and Hazel earlier... oh gods, Jason you should have seen it." Piper groaned, rubbing her forehead with her hand.

"What do you mean?"

"He set part of his room on fire, that's the best I can explain it." Piper said, reaching for the single braid in her hair. "Then, he told me he didn't know how it happened, like he just woke up I guess and suddenly nearly everything was burnt! He lied straight to my face."

Jason's blue eyes were suddenly filled with thought. "How do you know he lied?"

"You're defending him?"

"I'm just asking. What if he-"

"Had some sort of nightmare and lost control during the night?" Piper huffed, folding her arms over chest. "He wasn't telling me everything, I could tell."

Jason frowned. "Maybe it's best not to pry, Piper."

Piper gaped at him. Was she hearing him correctly?

She couldn't be.

"Jason, what if-"

"I understand that you're worried, but if anything was wrong or bothering Leo, don't you think he'd tell us about it?" Jason pointed out. His voice sounded confident, like he was entirely sure of himself and had no doubts, but there was a lingering bit on uncertainty in his eyes.

Piper didn't see it.

She thought about what the son of Jupiter said. He was right... wasn't he?

Leo was a chatterbox, that was for sure. He could drone on about the same subject for hours if his short attention span didn't jump over to a new topic.

He talked with everyone, was friends with everyone, but he wasn't... open.

Piper didn't recall Leo every talking about his own troubles. He complained, he nagged, he would go out of his way to make a point of how stupid something was, but anything to do with _him_ and _his_ feelings... Leo tended to block them out.

Piper didn't think Jason was so right anymore, but she gave a nod in agreement anyway and didn't push the subject.

She trusted that Leo would tell them if there was more going on than what he was currently letting her see.


	5. Leo: V :Discoveries

The Problem With Leo Valdez  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunetly- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: Haha, I probably should have credited the cover, eh?  
>The face is a picture of Leo that was done by Viria(who you can easily find on Tumblr if you'd like, her art is really amazing) and his eye is actually from a picture of Hazel that Viria also drew. I thought that since Leo goes all 'Eidolon-y' in this fic, and Hazel's eyes are a golden colour, I could just edit it in and <em>bam<em>! Eidolon-Possessed-Leo.  
>But yeah, the cover is a croppededited picture by Viria.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: V<strong>  
><strong>LEO<strong>

**Discoveries**

Leo felt like he was slowly losing his mind. For real this time, not just because of the funky Mist stuff Hazel was able to do.

He could barely talk to anyone without feeling like he was going to... fry them? Leo wasn't sure if that was the right term to use. When Piper had tried to talk to him, he felt like...

Man, this was so unlike him.

Really, Leo had wanted to... perminately get rid of her, so to say.

He was freaking himself out.

And his lovely little fire powers? It was suddenly as if Leo had become some sort of pyromaniac now for whatever reason. He'd pull out graphing paper from his toolbelt just so he could watch in burn in his hands. Then, because it was fun, he'd go and do it again and again.  
>He was out of control.<p>

Thankfully he hadn't installed any fire alarms.

All that aside, though, what was he going to do? He couldn't keep away from the others forever, but he couldn't exactly _confide_ in them, either.

...Could he?

No, no he couldn't. Leo didn't trust himself enough to do that.

He was out of his mind, how did he know that he wouldn't accidently perminately get rid of anyone? What if he...

Leo didn't even want to think about it. He couldn't do that. Not to his friends, not to... not to anyone. But something, a _feeling_, made him think that he wanted to.

He had managed to get Piper away, thank Hephaestus for that, but how long could he keep it up? Leo glanced down at his hands and saw the flickering of flames dancing on them. He knew that he wasn't purposefully doing that. It was as if his brain suddenly decided that it'd work completely on it's own, doing and thinking of things without Leo's consent.

He dropped down to the floor and tucked his hands tightly against his chest, hoping to smother the fire sprouting from them.  
>It didn't work, and all Leo managed to accomplish was burning a hole in his pajama shirt.<p>

Despite the heat, the boy felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

_Hazel is the easiest to get rid of first._ A voice in his head thought. He had been hearing it for hours now, but still Leo was confused whether it was actually him thinking or someone speaking to him.

At first he had thought that it was Gaea, he had heard _her_ plenty of times, but this voice was no sleepy evil woman speaking. As far as Leo could tell, it didn't even have a recognizable gender to it. The voice hissed and sneered, but never did it give away who it belonged to.

Yet... it sounded creepily familiar.

_Throw her overboard and let her fall to her death, that would be fun._ The voice snickered. _Or, kill everyone all at once by causing an explosion in the engine room! No one would survive except the one immune to the flames. _

"Stop it." Leo said aloud, narrowing his eyes in frustration.

_Oh, but little hero! I'm only getting started._

He was the one who fixed things. He solved problems. He made sense of things that sounded completely insane to anyone else.  
>Leo didn't want to admit that he couldn't find a solution to his own problem.<p>

_Don't get angry, little hero. Not everything needs to be fixed. We can work together properly if you would just stop resisti-_

"I said stop!" Leo snarled, squeezing his eyes shut. "I don't want to listen to you."

Now in the darkness, the son of Hephaestus saw a golden pair of eyes gleaming back at him.

_What made you think that you had a choice?_

Leo's eyes snapped open immediately and he scrambled backwards. Although the door was closed as with the windows, he felt a cold rush of air brush by him.

"You." He said.

_Me?_

"You're not supposed to be back."

_You have me mistaken for a sibling of mine. Though I must admit that it's flattering of you to think I'm worthy of being called the best! I certainly do try._

Leo was speechless. What was he supposed to say? They were back.

Of course they would be back.

What if-

_Earth Mother didn't want the son of Poseidon and the son of Jupiter. _The Eidolon said, giving an answer to Leo's question before he could even speak it. _But why waste time explaining? You are needed for much more important things._

"I'll get Piper to send you away, just like she did for the other three!" Leo snapped, regaining his courage.

It all made sense now.

He wasn't slowly losing his mind, after all.

It was just... an Eidolon.

The relief that Leo had felt for a few short seconds was quickly washed away and replaced with a knot of fear.

_I control you now, Leo Valdez._ The Eidolon hissed. _Make one move against me and your friends will have more painful deaths than I already have planned._

"You can't do a thing." Leo spat, though even he could hear the doubt in his words. The Eidolon had managed to do so much already...

_Let's test if that's true._

Without his will, Leo got up from the floor and walked over to the shattered mirror by his dresser. His head turned so he could see his relfection, and the face staring back at him made him gasp.

It was his. _Completely _his.

From his experiance, when Eidolon's took control the eye color of the person changed to gold. Leo's eyes, however, remained the dark brown that they always were.

_See? It took me many days of practicing on mortals to figure this trick out. You were a bit of a challenge, being a demigod, but look. No one will know I'm here. I made you walk to this very spot, but there's no proof to other's that it was me._

Leo clenched his fists.

He was a puppet.

"They'll figure it out." Leo said, finding a small bit of confidence again. "The others will know."

_Oh?_

"You don't act like me. Didn't you notice that Piper's suspicious enough already? I wouldn't have treated her like that!" Yeah... that was true.

He felt a little better knowing that his friends were already seeing straight through the Eidolon's act.

_That's just a mood-swing. _

Leo's reflection grinned at him, once again without his actual approval, and within seconds he heard himself speak.

"_I'm the Super-sized McShizzle, man_!" He laughed, placing his hands on his hips. His voice sounded just like his own. "_Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme_."

His arms fell and his grin dropped, but Leo didn't move away from the mirror. He stared at in shock.

"You just..."

_You may think you can fight me, but you can't, little hero. I want to make it clear that if you even try, your friends last thoughts will be wondering why it was _you_ who betrayed them, without my influence at all. Why would you ever join Gaea? Why would you hurt them like that? What would cause you to-_

"Stop it!"

_Are you going to try and stop me?_

Leo clenched his jaw and nodded. "I'd rather die than let myself be controlled by you."

His reflection shrugged and the Eidolon began walking towards the door.

"_This is not a game, Leo Valdez._" He growled, reaching for the doorknob. "_Will the death of a friend be what it takes for you to understand that_?"

Leo's heart lurched. He couldn't let the Eidolon make the room.

He wouldn't.

His hand shook as he and the Eidolon fought for control over it, but in only a matter of seconds it moved forward smoothly and turned the knob.

With a click, the door opened.

"_How about... oh! Annabeth sounds like a good first kill_." The Eidolon decided, grinning again as it moved Leo's body through the hall.

His movements were slighty rigid as Leo tried to stop walking, but the Eidolon pushed through and forced him to take another step forward.

"Leo!" Jason's voice sounded behind him, making both the Eidolon and Leo stop.

"Hey, I need to talk to you."

Leo turned around and saw the son of Jupiter coming down the stairs. His expression was cold, almost angry, and for a second Leo wondered if the guy was going to punch him in the face.

"_Can it wait? I need to talk to Annabeth for a second_." The Eidolon spoke for him, but there was no trace of this in his voice.

Jason's brow furrowed. "No, actually. It can't."

See, he found out! Leo wanted to scream.

"_If you insist, Superman._" He said, holding out his hands infront of him. "_What's up_?"

"Piper thinks you need help."

Leo lowered an eyebrow. "_Well I guess it's fair to say that I'm a bit out there, but can't seeing a psychologist wait until the war's over_?"

Jason sighed. "That's not what I meant. She thinks..." He said, taking a moment to find the right words. "Just, are you okay or not?"

"_Do I look okay_?"

"Well yeah I guess you look-"

"_Then I'm fine_!" He cheered, patting Jason on the shoulder. "_Anything else_?"

Leo wanted to scream.

_Don't you dare._

What if I did? He thought, pondering on the idea.

_What if I killed Jason?_ The Eidolon shot back.

Jason, oblivious of what was going on, folded his arms over his chest and glared. "Are you sure?"

"_Dude, I'm pretty positive_."

Can you stop talking for me? Leo silently muttered. He was cold. Freezing, actually.

Being under the control of the Eidolon was like being stuck outside during Autumn. He wanted a jacket or a hat or something, but most of all he also wanted to be let back inside.

_Not a chance, little hero._

Jason eyed Leo closely. After a few quiet seconds he gave up looking for the sign that would tell him the boy infront of him was lying.

"Alright then."

"_Okay_."

"I'll tell Piper."

"_Gotcha_."

Jason disappeared up the stairs.

As soon as he was gone, the Eidolon directed Leo in the direction of Annabeth's room once more.

"Wait, you're really doing this?" Leo blurted out, finding that he could once again speak.

_Perhaps._

"You can't!"

_Oh, I'm not going to kill her, Leo Valdez. This isn't a random murder spree. Earth Mother wouldn't be pleased to hear that I eliminated everyone before the fun could begin._

Leo managed to get his legs to stop moving.

"You said you were planning to kill everyone. You said you were going to kill Annabeth!"

_And what would that do for me at this point in time? People lie, little hero. _

"But you're not a person."

_That is true. You, however, are one who is seemingly talking to himself in the middle of a hallway._

"There's no one here but you and me."

_No one here but yourself and another._

* * *

><p>AN: _I've strayed from my posting plan lately, which is usually updates on Tuesdays, so from now on that's the day I'll be posting.  
><em>_Just thought I would let you guys know, so you don't think I've disappeared. _

_Also! Please feel free to leave questions in your review! If you don't understand something then just add it in and I'll answer in the next chapter._


	6. Leo: VI :Eidolon 1, Leo 0

The Problem With Leo Valdez  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunetly- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: Whoops, sorry for missing an update.  
>To make up for it, I think I made this chapter fairly interesting. I mean, who doesn't<br>want to see one of the demigods get beat up and nearly killed, am I right?  
>Ha... I lied.<br>Three of them get beat up, one is nearly killed.  
>Yay Leo, good going man.<p>

Being able to get wifi has been a big problem for me lately (since it switches on and off and I only have a certain amount of time available to use it) but udating this fanfic doesn't take a whole lot of time so hopefully it should all be good!  
>If I miss a Tuesday, though, please don't get mad because it's most likely that I wasn't able to get Internet.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: VI<strong>  
><strong>LEO<strong>

_**Eidolon 1, Leo 0**_

"Am I interrupting something?" Jason's voice sounded from behind Leo, making the boy wince. If he had been there the whole time... Leo probably looked like he was officially nuts.

A light went off in his head.

Maybe Jason would clue in and realize that his friend was acting as a costume for the Eidolon. Maybe he'd kept Piper and she could do the whole 'Imma charmspeak you outta here!' thing like she did last time.

At that moment, Leo felt a little bit of hope.

"_Just talking to myself_." He found himself saying, his hands waving the words away. "_What's up... again_?"

Jason's shoulders drooped a bit. "I think you need help, too." He admitted, taking a few steps toward his friend. "Piper and Hazel explained what you did and I'm just curious on wheth-"

"_I'm fine._" The Eidolon insisted, cutting Jason's sentence short. He sounded so confident as the words were said for him, but Leo could sense a slight feeling of worry beginning to boil.

With a burst of excitement, Leo realized that the thing was beginning to feel nervous.

Keep questioning it, the boy wanted to say to Jason. If he could just get the Eidolon to-

_Do not bother yourself with such plans, demigod._ The thing growled inside his head. _I cannot be beaten simply by being asked a few questions._

Whatever, freak. Leo thought back, willing his right arm to move so he could slap himself across the face. His hand twitched slightly, but that was all.

"You don't look like yourself." Jason noticed, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

See! Leo inwardly shouted. If he could, he knew that he'd have the biggest grin on his face at the moment. Jason wasn't as stupid as Leo gave him credit for.

"_I might be coming down with a cold or something but I-_" The Eidolon began, but stopped when it recognized the expression on Jason's face.

Leo felt his stomach twist, but it wasn't his own fear that he was feeling.

The son of Jupiter's eyes widened. "Your eyes."

Leo's hands clenched into fists and then suddenly it was like he was out of his body, looking down on what was going on but not really being where he was supposed to.

He glanced over to look at his face. With a wave of unease he saw that his eyes were burning a bright golden colour.

Panic began to rise in his chest. The Eidolon wasn't even _trying_ to remain unseen anymore.

It was going to do something.

"How did you get back on the ship?" Jason demanded, using his authoritative praetor voice that he probably used to talk in back at Camp Jupiter.

The Eidolon gave a sick chuckle. "_Demigods are so stupid_." It snickered, showing Jason a grin. "_I'd love to explain just how idiotic your kind really is, but unfortunately there's not enough time to waste._"

At that moment, Leo knew what the Eidolon was going to do.

He tried to shout a warning to Jason, to tell him to get the heck out of there, but of course he couldn't say anything. The thing controlling him didn't even budge.

He watched helplessly as his hands caught fire and felt his heart sink and its colour shifted from orange to red, and then to a horrifying blue-ish white.

The Eidolon wasn't planning on just _hurting_ Jason, it was going to full on burn the poor guy to ashes.

The flames reflected in Jason's eyes as he watched them grow.

Leo hoped that the guy would get running soon. He didn't have his weapon with him, none of the other demigods were below deck, and Leo highly doubted that he would summon lightning while on the ship.

Not to credit the Eidolon or anything, but Jason was doomed.

"Leo," Jason said cautiously, holding his hands out in front of him. "You wouldn't do this."

"_That's true, I don't think he would_." The Eidolon said, giving a simple shrug. He took a few steps forward as he cast another wicked grin at the son of Jupiter. "_However, I am more than willing to do it for him_."

Jason's face was fixed with concentration. "He wouldn't let you hurt a friend."

Leo felt sick to his stomach when he witnessed his face gleaming with anticipation. The golden coloured eyes seemed to glow just a tad bit brighter, as if the Eidolon's excitement fueled them like coals.

"_I believe you give the fool too much credit_." He hissed, and right as the words were escaping his mouth, a blast of fire was shot at Jason.

Leo figured that Jason was used to having things thrown at him, but that didn't stop the sickness that was washing over him. His friend dived out of the way, not even seemingly fazed by nearly being burnt to a crisp. He was fine, unharmed, but Leo hated watching himself do something like that.

"_Gaea will not be pleased that I killed you so early, son of Jupiter_!" The Eidolon said, the shrill sound of excitement clearly audible in his voice. Slowly, as the thing went on, Leo noticed a change in the sound that was coming out from his lips.

"_But the job will be done much quicker! You are lucky I spare you the painful, agonizing death that the Earth Mother has planned_!" It shrieked, shifting to one note to another.

The voice was no longer his.

Although it made Leo feel slightly better; the noticeable differences between himself and the Eidolon now freaked him out more than comforted.

It was like... it was like Leo Valdez wasn't even there anymore, and he was beginning to feel it.

The next things that the Eidolon shouted at Jason became a blur to Leo. The words were muffled, tuning in and out like it somehow he was listening to a radio that had a bad connection.

"They'll here you!" Jason snarled at him. He didn't look the least bit worried when Leo's hands slammed down against his throat in their attempts to choke him. "What will you do when the others come down here and see you?"

"_Oh, they wont be able to_." The Eidolon spat back, clutching Leo's hands around the boys neck. "_You're as good as dead, Jason Grace_."

Jason's face began to turn slightly purple, but his eyes remained locked on to the golden ones of the Eidolon. "Just wait." He choked out.

Leo was amazed and horrified at his friends courage. If their places were swapped, the boy was sure he'd be thrashing and kicking and freaking the heck out.

Calm? Jason was the master of calm. But what in the name of Hephaestus was the guy waiting for? Leo didn't care if he roughed up his body a little bit if he managed to stop him from killing him, he'd take a broken jaw and a black eye if needed.

Five seconds later, thanks to the sound of a sword unsheathing, Leo understood what Jason had been expecting.

He turned his head the same moment the Eidolon turned his actual, real life body's head, and their expressions read the same thing.

Confusion.

Standing behind them, looking very much welcomed but incredibly deadly, were Percy and Annabeth. The son of Poseidon held Riptide in his hands, a weapon Leo never thought he'd be so glad to see, and Annabeth had her drakon bone sword up and ready to fight.

Leo wondered if they had been below deck the whole time. If so, they sure took their sweet time to get their butts in gear.

"_How did you_-" The Eidolon asked, momentarily taking his attention away from Jason. His hands loosened and immediately the son of Jupiter took that short second to push him off and pin him to the ground.

"Get over here!" He snapped at Percy and Annabeth. "Help me hold him down."

The pair rushed over, Annabeth taking his wrists and Percy taking his feet while Jason literally sat on him.

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded, glaring at Leo. The boy wished that she could see where he _really_ was, out of his own body like a snail out of its shell, but the whole concept was like a huge brain-jumble. The jist was that she couldn't see him.

"Eidolon." Jason gasped, still winded from his lack of oxygen.

Percy scowled. "We _know_ that, look at his eyes! She means _how_?"

"_You cannot defeat me, children of-_"

"Shut up." Annabeth hushed, then gave a nod to Jason.

"You're guess is as good as mine." Jason shrugged. "There was only three of them, wasn't there? Piper didn't miss any?"

"The last ones said Gaea only sent three." Percy muttered, eyeing Leo suspiciously.

Over here, Leo thought helplessly.

Annabeth let out a sigh. "There could always been more, but what we have to focus on is getting _this_ one out." She said, jabbing a finger towards Leo's face.

Something flickered in the golden eyes of the Eidolon, and Leo felt his consciousness shift again. This time his eyesight blurred a bit, hiding the fact that there was a smile sneaking it's way onto the boys face.

Annabeth noticed the problem before he did.

"His hands." She gasped, whipping backwards. "Percy, Jason, get-"

The two boys barely had time to scramble out of the way as Leo's body erupted into flames.

Jason yelled out a few latin curse words and Percy began spitting out Greek insults like he had grown up with the famous Party Ponies Leo kept hearing about.

"_For that, all of you will burn_!" The Eidolon's hissy voice screeched out, diving towards Annabeth first.

Percy's eyes widened and he tried to reach out to grab one of Leo's arms. "Stop!" He shouted, then added another couple of choice words as his hands made contact with the flames.  
>"Mother of f-"<p>

"Use the plumbing!" Jason barked at him, gesturing a hand towards the walls.

Percy shot him a look. "Do you mind? We have a bigger problem than a bathroom break, Jason!"

"The water in them, Jackson!" Jason snapped, "Use the water!"

Percy's mind registered and he gave a nod.

As the son of the sea god tried to concentrate, the Eidolon wasn't giving in to any mercy.

The flames around him had died down a fair bit now, but the thing had made a wall of them around him and Annabeth, blocking Percy and Jason from helping her.

It seemed that blocking the airway was the Eidolon's favourite method of killing, because his hands were firmly clamped around Annabeth's neck, just as he had done to Jason.

Burns stretched well aways down her arms and continued with a few ugly blotches on her face. Looking at her made Leo wince. He turned his attention back to Percy, desperately hoping that he was getting somewhere with the pipes.

Sure, the ship wouldn't take kindly to a flood, but... oh holy Hephaestus.

The engine room.

The big one was way below deck, yeah, but Leo couldn't risk ruining it. It hooked up to pipes, explosives, the whole new computer system he had _just_ installed a few days ago! He had tied that baby in with Festus' _brain_, and the gods know how often the dragon got hit with crummy luck. He was only a head now, if that proved any points.

It was either the ship or-

'But I guess you care more about your ship than your friends.' Frank had accused him of once. Maybe it was true, since Leo had seriously just considered saving his ship over his friend, but he was going to make it false... and still kind of true.

He just had to push the Eidolon to back off, right? The idea didn't sound too hard. All he had to do was come back enough to stop what was going on.

Piece of cake.

Leo began to focus, which was somewhat of an impossible task for him to do. He knew his brain was nuts, it was true he had a comically short attention span.  
>This, however, this was serious. Lives were at stake, Festus was at stake, lots and lots of drachmas to pay off the Stolls for their shipping services were on the verge of going to complete waste.<p>

He tried to find an anchor. That was what people did in this situations, right? They needed something to pull them back.

Unfortunately, the only person Leo immediately thought of was the one who was dead. Not exactly much of a comforting thought.

He thought deeper. Who else did he really care about? Obviously there were his friends, one of which was in the danger of ceasing to exist, but he didn't really need them _all_, did he?  
>He'd miss them if they disappeared one day, but Leo was sure that he'd be able to move on.<p>

Then, Leo realized, that was wrong.

If he let something, some _monster_, use his body to kill his friends off, he knew that there was no way he'd be able to move on. He'd carry the weight of knowing he allowed himself, even if being controlled, to commit such a foul act.

Annabeth. What would happen if she ended up dying because of him? Leo would be furious with himself. He'd spend every minute thinking of all the ways he could have prevented it.  
>He'd already let her fall into Tartarus because he'd been too preoccupied with something else, he couldn't let that happen again.<p>

Percy. Leo knew that he'd be devastated. He refused let something like that happen. Percy was his friend, more than that, a _hero_. Honestly Leo couldn't count how many times the guy had saved everyone's asses. How much of a failure would he be as a friend if he let the guy go?

Jason. Jason was a lot of things; like too strict sometimes or too serious when Leo tried to lighten the mood. He might think of himself as some almighty Roman who didn't need anyone, but he allowed himself to make friends, and Leo didn't plan on misusing that type of trust.

Hazel. It wasn't just because Leo's great-grandfather and her had flirted it up, heck, that wasn't even part of the reason at all. Leo already felt like he messed up whatever bond they had, but he was determined to save whatever was left of it. She had been there for him, after all, not letting her die for a second time was the least Leo could do.

Frank. Leo wasn't even sure if he liked Frank, but the big guy didn't deserve even the tiniest amount of what the Eidolon had planning. He was a good guy who put up with Leo constantly stepping all over him, who found the courage to lead his friends to victory in battle, and who didn't think twice about putting his life on the line even though it literally depended on a stick. If Frank was going to die, it definitely couldn't be because of something so dishonoring as being murdered by a 5'6, lanky, pointy eared Latino freak.

Piper. There was a book full of things that Leo could list off on what she was, but choosing just one felt better. Piper was his friend even before either of them knew that they were part of a freaky-deaky prophecy. Piper had held out her hand to him on their first days of Wilderness School together and told him that it was either be friends with her, or be trampled by the more popular kids. Leo had refused that offer, and on the second day he had been trampled by exactly who Piper had predicted. On the third day, Leo and Piper had teamed up to get back at them and then laughed about it in detention.

Leo couldn't live without any of them. Not without Annabeth or Percy. Not without Jason, Hazel, or Frank. And he certainly couldn't live without Piper, his best friend long before they were dragged into a world of wars and monsters.

He couldn't let the Eidolon hurt Annabeth, not now or ever. He couldn't let it move on to one of the others. Leo wouldn't let that _thing_ win.

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, Leo felt something tugging at him from the direction of where his body was. He saw himself freeze on the spot, watched as the flames dissolved into the air, and his hands let go of their grasp around Annabeth's neck.

Thankfully, _finally_, Leo realized that he was back in his own body. The Eidolon had been pushed aside.

His relief didn't last for too long, though, because the next second after that Leo felt someone slam into him, knocking him to the around.

"If you killed her, Valdez..." Percy's voice growled in his ear. "If you killed her, I swear I'll-"

"Percy." Jason snapped at him as he knelt down beside Annabeth. "You know he didn't mean to hurt her."

"Oh yeah? _Someone _had to let that thing back onto the ship! Who do you think gave it permission?" Percy hissed, shooting an icy glare at Leo. "What exactly do you think you're doing, Valdez? This isn't some stupid game you can play!"

Leo didn't try to tell him to shut up, but he did try to explain. "Percy, there was more than just three. The one that you saw was entirely-"

"You think you can lie your way out of this?!" Percy shouted, tears clearly visible in his eyes. "You almost _killed_ us, Leo!"

Jason shook his head. "We're fine and Annabeth is okay. Calm down."

Percy's head snapped towards his direction. "She's breathing?"

Jason gave a nod, and Annabeth uttered something that sounded like an ancient Greek curse word.

Leo could literally see the relief wash over Percy. He felt a bit of it himself, too. Knowing that he had come back in time gave him hope that he could do it again if it ever happened.

The son of Poseidon climbed off Leo and hurried over to where Annabeth lay.

To Leo, Annabeth's face stilled looked fairly purple, but every second it was beginning to go back to it's original colour.

Thank the gods, Leo thought as he pulled himself into a sitting position.

Jason stood up and looked over the scene around him. "Percy, you can take Annabeth to the sickbay and get her some ambrosia for her burns." He said, using his Roman-y voice again. "Leo, we're going to get Piper."

"McLean? For what?"

"To bake a cake." Jason replied, folding his arms over his chest. "What do you think? She's the only one who can get the Eidolon out of you."

Leo nodded quickly and shot to his feet. He was a bit embarrassed that he hadn't remembered that, since it was a pretty important thing to remember at the moment.  
>"Right, right okay."<p>

Percy scooped up Annabeth and headed down the hall. Jason and Leo were about halfway up the stairs when the son of Poseidon shouted back at them.

"The doors locked!"

"What?"

"The door won't open, Jason. What else would I mean?"

Jason narrowed his eyes and tried to open the door leading up to the main deck, but the doorknob didn't even turn.

Leo felt guilty when his friend immediatly gave him a suspicious glance, like _he_ was somehow the reason why the door was locked.

"Did you do anything?"

"No."

"Liar." Percy huffed, now walking towards them, Annabeth still in his arms. "How can we trust you?"

Leo wanted to think that it was just because the guy had been through Tartarus, but he seriously wasn't appreciating how he was acting like Leo had a monster hiding under his skin. It was true, but a little respect would be nice.

"Why would I lock myself down here with you three?" Leo snapped, rolling his eyes.

Percy scowled. "Well I don't know, maybe so no one could see you kill us?"

Leo clenched his jaw. "I wouldn't do that on my own, Jackson. Get that in your head."

Jason frowned at them. "Percy might be right, Leo."

"_What?_" Leo snarled, a look of disbelief on his face as he turned towards Jason. "Why am I suddenly the big bad wolf here?"

"You've got an Eidolon in you," Jason reminded him, as if he needed any reminders. "so why _shouldn't_ we be quick to judge? I mean, for all we know this couldn't even be you right now."

Percy glared at Leo as Jason continued.

"Eidolons can alter their hosts thoughts without even needing to fully possess them. You could have locked the doors from the outside thinking there was a logical reason behind it, but really it was just the Eidolon having you do it."

Leo furrowed his eyebrows. "I would have remembered that. And besides, everything in the ship relies on the main system. No keys, no flip locks, it's the computers that handle everything."

"Since when?" Percy demanded.

Leo shrugged. "Since I realized how much easier it would be if everything did it's job without me telling it what to do? It's a set up program, Percy, perfectly safe."

"You didn't give it some weird living ability that Buford has, right?" Jason asked, lowering an eyebrow.

Leo shook his head. "Nope."

Then, when Jason finished getting that settled in to his brain, he face-palmed. "Unless... aw man." He groaned, rubbing his temples. "So, if there's more than just the three Eidolons we met before, what if-"

"Another one is controlling the system." Percy finished, his voice so low it hardly sounded like him.

"It would explain why the computers weren't working right earlier. Piper had said there was something up with them." Leo muttered, feeling a knot form in his stomach. He couldn't believe they all had been so blind. Like, they were supposed to be _heroes _here! They couldn't let such important details slip past them.

Jason looked like he was deep in thought. Every second or two he'd mumble something, but neither Leo or Percy could catch what he was saying.

". . . Call for Frank." Annabeth said, her eyes cracking open. "He can break the door down, can't he?"

"Well yeah if he were a bear-" Leo said, then let out a sigh when he registered his own words. "Oh."

Percy was just about to open his mouth when the lights flickered off, and the four of them were absorbed into the darkness.


	7. Piper: VII :Gone

The Problem With Leo Valdez  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunetly- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: FIXED IT.  
>Yay, me.<p>

And, guys, I know that this chapter may seem disappointing right now, but I _promise_ that it will be kinda important later.  
>I got this.<br>Don't think I don't know what I'm doing.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: VII<strong>  
><strong>PIPER<strong>

_**Gone**_

Piper didn't know what to do when the entire ship shut down. One minute they were docked in the sky, watching as the clouds floated past them and waiting for Annabeth to get back, and the next they were falling.

Falling, falling... still falling.

Piper's immediate thought: _We're so going to die._ She was quite the daring hero, worrying about death like that.

"Grab onto something!" Hazel shouted, slipping on the floors and reaching for one of the railing shields. Frank wasn't too far behind her, but his feet couldn't seem to stay steady and soon enough he was slipping towards Festus' head.

"Where's everyone else?" Piper called to her friend, wrapping her arms around the base of one of the many ballistae's.

"Below." Frank replied as he whipped past her, desperately trying to grab onto something before he had the chance to be swooped up in the air.

Piper reached for his hand and managed to bring him up beside her.

"They'll be crushed when we land," She panicked, looking back towards the doorway. "do you think one of us should get them?"

From the corner of her eye, she saw Hazel shake her head. Piper waited for an answer, but the wind was pushing all of the other girls curly hair up into her face and she ended up coughing before she got one word out.

Piper frowned and turned back to Frank, who's eyes were wild with fear and face rapidly losing it's colour. "I think I'm gonna be sick..." He announced, using one hand to cover his mouth.

Piper didn't dare let go of her hold, but she imagined herself patting his back. "We'll be fine." She promised, mostly to herself. Was she right? How did she know that the three of them weren't going to meet their deaths in a few minutes?

She didn't.

Piper sucked in a deep breath, let go of the ballistae, and forced her way over to where Hazel was.

The wind roared around them, threatening to tilt the ship in a way that all three of the demigods would be lost to the sky, and suddenly Piper felt just as sick as Frank. Her stomach churned and bubbled, making the girl want to throw up.

"Hazel," She managed out, forcing whatever was climbing up her throat to retreat back down. "You can still control metal, right?"

Hazel nodded, but her faced displayed confusion. "Of course."

"Do you think you can lift the ship?"

The daughter of Pluto's eyes widened with horror, like the idea was suicide. "You honestly aren't thinking..." She trailed off when Piper gave a nod. "I can _move _metal, Piper, but a celestial bronze _ship_? I don't know."

Piper dared to look over the edge. She felt another bubble in her stomach when she saw nothing but woodland beneath them, growing closer with every second that they wasted. It would have been different if they had been sailing over water, but during the night it seemed that they had taken a detour.

Now, if they continued falling, they didn't have a chance at making it out alive.

"Hazel, please. You have to try." Piper pleaded.

"I can't! Use your charmspeak on Festus like you did before, to wake him up!"

Her charmspeak had brought Festus to life. Living things didn't 'shut down' like mechanical things did. Living things died.  
>What was Festus doing now? Acting like a bobble head as they rocketed towards the ground. What did that mean?<br>Festus was dead.

"Just _try_, Hazel."

Even to Piper, her idea was a long shot. No way could Hazel keep the entire ship in the air. No way could she set them down gently somewhere safe.

But that wasn't what they needed.

"Just enough to lessen the fall, okay? I know you can do it." Piper assured her.

Hazel took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, tying to concentrate. A few nerve-wrecking seconds past and tears began finding their way to her face.

"It's not working!" Hazel cried. "Nothing's happening!"

"It's okay!"

"No, it's not!"

It was the worst time for it to happen, but seeing the terrified look on Hazel's face reminder Piper that her friend was only a thirteen year old. She was just a kid.

Granted, Hazel had already gone through death once and was living way out of her time, but she was still only a kid nonetheless.

Demigod life is never fair, Piper chided herself. That was something she had learned awhile ago, when she had to save her father from _his_ death. She had gotten another lesson when Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus. And now, life was giving her another one.

Nothing was ever fair when it came to demigods. They weren't supposed to get happy endings like in fairy-tales, they were supposed to die young. As children and teenagers, demigods had always been set up for death.

Not today though, Piper thought. She wouldn't have her last moments in a ship falling out of the sky. She wouldn't have Hazel's final thoughts be of how horrible the situation was. She wouldn't have Frank be clutching onto a ballistae when it ended.

No, definitely not today.

"Hazel," Piper said, trying to mask the desperation in her voice. "we don't have a lot of time. If there's anyone that can do it, it's you. What do you think?"

"I think you're crazy." Hazel uttered, though a slight smile was beginning to form. "But I'll try."

"Thank you."

"And... Piper?"

"Yeah?"

"If this doesn't work, I'm sorry."

She's just a kid, echoed in Piper's mind.

"It wouldn't be your fault." Piper said, forcing a grin. "Now come on Levesque. You can do it."

She didn't fully catch what the daughter of Pluto said after that, but two of the words were definitely "I hope"

And with that, Piper held her breath and waited for something to happen...

...

Nothing did.

Seconds passed, and still the _Argo II _was falling out of the sky at an alarming pace. Piper looked over to see her friend squeezing her eyes shut, her knuckles draining from their colour as she gripped the railing shield.

"Hazel," Piper started, but the girl cut her off.

"I know."

This was it. Nothing was happening. Hazel couldn't do it. Why had Piper even assumed that she could?

Piper felt the air escape from her lungs as the ship lurched to the side.

It had hit something.

This was how she would die.

Hazel cast a horrified glance at her and the beginnings of tears glistened near her eyes. "Piper, I don't want to die again!" She cried out, just as the _Argo II _hit something else and sent her flying back towards Frank.

Piper screamed for her friend the hang on, then shouted at Frank to turn into something and get him and the younger girl out of there.

Piper and the others below deck had the odds against them. It was better if two out of seven made it out, rather than none.

"Go!" The daughter of Aphrodite screeched, alarmed by the sound of one of the masts snapping. "Frank, _leave_!"

Another crack, then a snap, then the sounds of the metal folding and bending as the ship made contact with the rest of whatever was below it.

Frank didn't move.

With another sudden lurch, Piper was tossed over the side of the _Argo II_ and braced herself for impact.

* * *

><p>Voices. She was sure that she was hearing voices.<p>

They called her name as she walked through lush flower fields. No one was in sight, but Piper was too absorbed by the roses and daisy's to pay much attention anyway.

It was beautiful, why would she want to turn her attention away?

"Piper!" One of the voices sounded off in the distance. "Piper!"

She ignored them.

Happily breathing in the scents of the field, the girl felt oddly at peace.

"Please, you have to wake up!" The same voice pleaded. "Open your eyes!"

She felt as if someone was shaking her shoulders, but when she turned around, still no one was there.

She scowled, then turned her head back towards the the beautiful field.

When her eyes rested on the roses, what she saw wasn't what she had seen. They were wilted, covered in shadows and planted in oily dirt.

Frowning, Piper looked over at the daisies, then the tulips, then the marigold... all of them. All of them were dead.

Clouds drifted over the fields, bringing with them an icy breeze. Piper shivered, but the sound of the same familiar voice distracted her from the goosebumps.

"Piper!" It called once, then again and again and again.

Each time her name was repeated, the voice got a little bit clearer. She had no idea who was speaking, who was trying to reach out to her, but suddenly the girl had an understanding that they were trying to help her.

Once again, someone was shaking her shoulders.

"Wake up!"

She didn't try to brush them away this time. She felt a tugging feeling, right in her head and in her stomach, and then suddenly Piper felt dizzy.

The sky and the dead flower fields warped into one, but before everything went black, Piper saw what had really been around her the whole time.

Bodies. Hundreds upon hundreds of dead demigods, all being devoured by the earth they had fallen on.

* * *

><p>Piper awoke to her own screaming. She hadn't been aware that she'd been doing it at first, but then her throat began to feel like sandpaper and then the next second she was coughing.<p>

Once she regained her breath, Piper tried to get to her feet.

Her legs wobbled beneath her and she didn't think that her left knee was supposed to be able to bend like that, but she wasn't immediately crashing to the ground, so that was good.

Of course, _moving_ her left leg was the real challenge, but after three minutes of pain and cursing, Piper decided it would be best to hop.

Alright, number one thing on the list was completed. Number two, where did she land?

Piper squinted her eyes and tried to find a landmark of some sort. From what information she gathered, she was in a forest. Very helpful.

If only she could have substituted all the tree's for the Eiffel Tower, or a more familiar place like Camp Half-Blood... or Athens, which was where she really needed to be.

Next was the ship.

The girl looked upwards to the sky, and just as expected she saw the damaged tree-top trail that the _Argo II_ had left during it's crash landing. She knew that she should have been devastated, but at that moment Piper laughed.

She was alive.

_Alive._

She had thought for sure that she was dead. She had heard the _Argo II _crumple apart, she had heard the metal twisting and screeching, she had felt the impact as she hit the ground. But despite all that, she was okay.

And then, at that moment, Piper realized that maybe she wasn't okay after all.

Where were the others?

With a sickening jolt, Piper's brain was shoved back into reality. Pain stabbed at her leg, she felt a trickle of blood running down her forehead, but most of all, no one else was in sight.

She was alive, but Piper was completely alone.

The others were alive too, weren't they? There was no way they couldn't be. _She_ had been thrown off the ship from the air and managed to make it, the others...

Four of them had been below deck when the _Argo II _crashed, Hazel and Frank had been out of Piper's sight. What was she thinking? She had no idea what had happened to them.

"Jason!" Piper screamed, scanning the area around her in case anyone else was there. All she saw was undergrowth and pine tree's in every direction.

"Hazel, Frank!" The girl cried, stumbling forward to where the destruction of the treetops led. "Percy! Annabeth!" Piper shouted, desperate for someone to answer her. "Leo!"

No one. _No one_ answered her.

The fear in the bit of her stomach grew, and soon enough Piper found herself running. Her leg throbbed and something raked across her arms, causing bright red lines to show, but she forced herself to keep going.

She had to find them.

Piper stumbled on a broken off piece of celestial bronze, then ran passed littered bits of wood and metal, and then suddenly the girl was standing right before the ship. What was left of it, anyway.

Half of it was still in tact, the front half was torn apart. Wires and pipes sprung out where the inside walls had been, smoke from the engine room was lifting towards the sky, and a steady sound of buzzing filed through the air.

The _Argo II _was in ruins.

To make it worse, Piper saw five bodies scattering the ground. She should have felt a sense of relief, but the fact that none of them were moving made her feel sick. Also, someone was missing.

First she recognized the face of Frank, who had landed not far off from Hazel. Their chests moved up and down in a steady rhythm, so Piper moved on to where Percy was.

The son of Poseidon was literally right beside Annabeth and Jason, as if they had all been together right as the ship crashed. The three of them looked fine, only slightly hurt, but to Piper it didn't look as if all their wounds had come from hitting the ground.

Percy's and Annabeth's weapons were both clutched in their hands, burns marking their skin, and Jason's neck showed bright red hand prints.

They had been fighting, Piper realized. They had been below deck with Leo, who was the one who had been acting oddly. Two of them had burns. Their weapons were drawn. Leo was now missing.

He had attacked them, what other explanation was there?

At her feet, Percy began to stir.

"Kill," The son of Poseidon uttered, squinting his eyes, "twice."

Piper knelt down and stared at him, completely centered on everything that he said. "What? Percy, what are you talking about?"

The boy's eyes didn't focus on anything as they looked around. "He came back, to stop. Then it started again when the lights went out. He went for Riptide, to kill."

"Leo? Are you talking about Leo?"

"His eyes."

Piper wanted him to tell her more, but she noticed a matted spot in his hair and realized that he had a head wound. She didn't know if anything in the sick-bay was still in tact, hopefully the ambrosia had made it through.

"She's... she's using him to get us, I think." Percy said, finally looking at her. "He wasn't himself, said he'd kill us all."

Piper nodded and got to her feet. Annabeth hands were lifted across her face, flexing in and out as if she was studying how to work them again, and across from them Frank was beginning wake up as well.

Piper would get everyone bandages and ambrosia, they'd all heal up, and then they would figure out what to do.

As she limped towards the broken ship, the familiar thought played across in her mind once more.

They were wounded, half of them unconscious, one of them missing and apparently attempting to kill the rest. They had the weight of the world resting on their shoulders, a deadline that they couldn't miss, and a camp they considered home about to be attacked by the Romans.

All of them were just children.


	8. Piper: VIII :Trapped

The Problem With Leo Valdez  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunately- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: Ohmygod you guys I feel like this chapter has taken too long to write.  
>I promise, they'll be an update next Saturday as well (maybe).<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: VIII<strong>  
><strong>PIPER<strong>

_**Trapped**_

Piper didn't think things could get any worse. The ship was blowing out smoke, Festus was making clicking sounds which were probably due to his brain being hit by a tree branch, and the other demigods were still groggy from the fall.

To make matters worse, Leo, the one who had apparently caused the whole mess, still hadn't shown up yet.

As Piper bandaged up her injure friends and fed them some ambrosia (also taking some for herself, as her leg felt like it had been snapped in half then had a thousand needles shoved into it), she began to brainstorm ways how to get the heck out of wherever they had landed.

Obviously getting the _Argo II_ back in the sky was a no-go. The thing, while repairable if they had the right resources and time, wouldn't get them ten feet off the ground, much less be able to function as an actual ship.

She could find some drachmas and call for help from Camp Half-Blood, ask for a couple chariots from the Apollo kids and borrow some pegasi, but what could would those do in Athens?

Piper furrowed her eyebrows as she cut off another piece of gauze. They were going into war. They needed a battleship.

"Piper?" Percy said, lifting his head and frowning at her. "Woah... there's two of you."

"I see three." Jason grumbled, rubbing his hands over his eyes. "Oh my gods. Guys, does anyone else feel the ground shaking?"

A few feet away, Hazel pulled herself up into a sitting position. "Well that certainly wasn't fun." She said, pulling her curly hair away from her face and wiping the blood away from her cheek. "Let's not do that again anytime soon."

"Aye aye, matey." Percy mumbled in a bad attempt at a pirate accent. He gave a tired smile, then managed a sloppy salute before dropping his hands back onto the grass.

Beside him, Annabeth punched him in the arm. "Shut up, seaweed brain."

Piper stared at the three of them in dismay. The boys were completely out of it, and Frank was barely even awake yet. At least Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper seemed to be doing okay.

"When... before I woke up," Piper recalled, trying to remember. "I heard someone calling my name. Did any of you hear something similar?"

Percy's eyes shot open wide. "I did." He said, forcing himself to sit up. "I heard something too."

Piper nodded for him to go on.

"It was a pool." Percy whispered, sounding amazed at his own words. The second he stopped talking, Piper felt her shoulders sag. The guy still didn't know what the heck he was talking about.

"Don't look at me like that." The son of Poseidon snapped, his words directed at Piper. "It was there! And it told me something. It was... uh... it was telling me I needed to go back."

Annabeth sat up as well. "I didn't hear anything, but I was reading something." She remembered, narrowing her eyes. "All of the pages had the same things written on them. It was..." She scowled and shook her head. "I can't remember."

To Piper, this was insanely weird.

In their dreams, the daughter of Aphrodite had been hearing voices in a flower field, the son of Poseidon had been listening to a pool, and the daughter of Athena had been reading.

Piper looked over at Hazel, who now seemed to be in somewhat of a trance.

"Hazel-" She began to say, but Jason's voice cut her off.

"The ground." Jason muttered, swatting at a blade of grass. "The ground!"

Great, Piper thought. My boyfriend has gone crazy.

Piper was going to tell him everything was fine, but then Annabeth and Percy began to act up as well.

"I think it's trying to eat me." Percy said bluntly, pulling his hand away from the dirt. Clumps of mud stuck to his fingers and bits of grass wrapped themselves around his arm.

Annabeth tried to do the same, but her hand wouldn't budge. "It's stuck!"

Confused, Piper looked down to see that the earth below her seemed to be dragging her down as well. She tried to move her legs, but the mud hardene around them, acting like a glue.

"I don't understand." She hissed, tugging harder.

Annabeth shot her a worried glance. "Gaea." She said. It was the only thing she needed to say.

Jason, still a little bit dazed, began muttering Latin curses as he tumbled back to the dirt floor after his attempt to stand up.

Piper's heart fell. "Oh gods no." She growled, trying to kick her feet. "Not now. _Not now_!"

Hazel jerked out of her trance as the grass around her hands began finding its way up her arm. She let out a scream, but her attention didn't seem to be focused on her own problems.

"Frank!" The daughter of Pluto cried. Piper looked just in time to see the Roman demigod nearly disappear in the dirt. The only part of his body left showing was a small bit of his head.

Immediately, Piper understood the other girls panic.

"Can anyone move?" The daughter of Aphrodite asked, unable to hide the worry in her voice. She didn't want to be swallowed up by the earth goddess. That would just be plain weird.

Annabeth let out a groan of frustration. "No, McLean, we can't."

"I can!" Percy perked up, a wide grin plastered on his face. "This is mud, right? Mud, water, this'll be no biggie." He said, sounding overly proud of his idea. To Piper, it seemed like nothing more than wishful thinking and desperation.

The others watched as the boy squeezed his eyes shut, but after a few seconds of silence passed it was clear that Percy's plan wasn't working.

"Gaea's controlling this, Percy." Piper said, not only trying to reassure him but herself as well. "We'll find another way out."

Suffocation didn't seem like the best way to die, but as the five of them tried to come up with idea's and Frank disappearing in the mud, Piper felt like it was the way she would go.

She looked to her side to ask Jason what they should do, but the blond had his eyes focused on the sky and was uttering something under his breath. As Piper watched him, she felt the frown already on her face deepen. What was he doing? She strained her ears to listen, but Hazel's sudden outburst strayed her concentration.

"He's gone!" Hazel exclaimed, tears forming around her eyes. "Frank. He just went under."

Piper wanted to say something that would make the girl feel better, but she didn't think that even charmspeak would be able to hold back Hazel's sobs. Besides, just looking at the sight of where Frank used to be caused a hollow pit in Piper's stomach. She doubted whatever power she had would work against her own grief.

Beside her Piper heard the sound of someone else being sucked further into the mud, but the grass and tangled itself around her so much that she could barely turn her head.

"Annabeth-" Percy began to say.

"I'm fine." Annabeth replied, seemingly through gritted teeth. "Hazel, I really need you to do one thing for all of us, is that okay?" Although the girl sounded calm and under control, Piper sensed the inner alarm that she was feeling.  
>Piper felt it too.<p>

Hazel gave a shaky nod. "Okay."

"Try to find out whats underground." Annabeth said. "There has to be a room or, or a bunker or _something_. Is there anything?"

"I don't know." Hazel admitted, her voice quiet. "I can't tell."

Annabeth hardly got a word out before Jason let out an air snatching scream. Frightened, but more so concerned, Piper forced herself to turn so she could face him.

He wasn't there.

"Jason." Piper whispered, her eyes wide with alarm. "Gods, this can't be happening." Frank had already went under, now Jason was down there with him. If Leo still counted, that meant three of the seven demigods were gone. Four were left. What chances did they have?

No. Piper thought, forcing back the tears in her eyes. Jason and Frank are still alive.  
>She wanted to believe it, she really did, but what if there wasn't any air where they were? What if it was just earth, and Gaea was suffocating them?<p>

"Oh jeez, my foot." Percy uttered, a panicked look spreading across his face. "No one freak out, but I think something just grabbed it."

"_Grabbed it_?" Annabeth repeated in disbelief. "Kick it away, then! Hazel, there has to be something under us."

The daughter of Pluto looked as if she was struggling against breaking down. "There's no metal and I can't sense any tunnels. I'm sorry... I can't help here."

"It's alright." Piper said reassuringly, managing a smile. "We'll-"

Annabeth cut her off.

"No, it's not, Piper!" The girl shouted, true panic sounding in her voice. "We can't get out of this and something is trying to get Percy! _How_ is that alright? We need to know whats down there!"

For once, Piper didn't give a quick remark. Even Percy and Hazel had fallen silent, which was especially odd for the son of Poseidon.

Then, Percy disappeared underground.

Piper hadn't been aware that it was possible to feel so numb. Three of her friends were victims now, and by the looks of it Hazel would soon be the fourth. With every second that passed the mud dragged the daughter of Pluto down deeper, and now it was above her shoulders.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "I shouldn't have yelled like that." She apologized, though her eyes were stuck to where Percy had been, not where Hazel was. "Even if we don't know what it is, we can still fight whatever's down there."

All three of them sank down deeper into the mud, which now seemed to be climbing its way around their skin and making the trip quicker.  
>Hazel only had a few seconds left.<p>

"...We promise." Piper chipped in, wishing she could do something to wipe the worry from her friends face. "Seriously. We'll kick some monster butt."

Hazel gave what Piper hoped was a laugh, but then the mud reached to her mouth and her eyes filled with fear again.  
>Then, she was gone.<p>

Annabeth was next.

"No brilliant last minute ideas?" Piper asked, lowering her eyebrow.

The daughter of Athena shot her a glare.

"Woah, woah, relax. Like you said, we can always fight our way out."

Annabeth bit her lip. "If we die-"

"We won't."

"But if we _do_... who's going to save Olympus from Gaea? I know that Nico and Reyna are trying to fix the rift between the Romans and Greeks, but even if our camps unite, _we're_ the members of the prophecy for a reason. Jason, Percy, you, me, Hazel, Frank, and Leo... we can't fail at this."

Piper rolled her eyes. "The gods can choose some other special seven to save them, then."

Annabeth frowned. "I'm not joking around, Piper." She said, and Piper felt bad for trying to get a laugh out of the situation. Annabeth was always the one who had it together, seeing her so worried about something should have told the girl to try to help calm her down.

"You already said it, Chase. We're the members of the prophecy for a _reason_, no way we'd fail at this. Heck, maybe we can't fail at all!" Piper said as enthusiastically as she could. "The Fates wouldn't have picked a bunch of losers to save the world and planned for them to die, right?"

"...Right."

"Good. We'll all make it out of this."

Annabeth nodded, then was pulled deeper into the mud so it came up past her mouth. Seconds passed, maybe a minute, and suddenly Annabeth drew in a large breath just as she sank enough so the mud covered her nose.  
>Not even ten seconds passed before she was completely under.<p>

Alone now, Piper realized that she was absolutely terrified.

After about a minute of fearful waiting, something under the mud began tugging at her left foot and Piper felt a rush of terror. It must have been the same thing that Percy had spoken of, but the girl hadn't expected it to literally be trying to drag her downwards.

Mom, Piper thought as she strained her neck to keep her head above the ground. If you can do anything, just don't let any one of us die.

She wasn't really sure how much control the goddess of love had over life and death, but hopefully Aphrodite could pull a few strings to keep the six demigods alive. And Leo. Whatever situation the guy was in at the moment, Piper hoped it wasn't quite as terrifying as being eaten by dirt.

With one last little wish to her mother, Piper was pulled down under.

* * *

><p>If she had known what was going to happen when she opened her eyes, maybe Piper wouldn't have been as scared as she was fifteen seconds before.<p>

At first she had felt someone shaking her shoulder, which she automatically assumed was a monster checking if she was dead. Then she had heard someone saying her name, which reasonably she thought was a Cyclopes mimicking someones voice. And then finally, her leg began to fall asleep and her eyes snapped open from the feeling of pins and needles.

What she saw thankfully wasn't a monsters lair, but it definitely wasn't a very welcoming sight despite her friends all being well and alive.

It looked like some sort of cave, except Piper couldn't see an actual opening aside from the roof (which was literally dripping down and looked like it was about to collapse, by the way). The walls were jagged rocks, and barely any light shone through so everything looked like it was engulfed in shadows.

"Oh thank gods, you're awake." Jason said, rushing over to her side. "You hit your head pretty hard... does it hurt?"

Piper hadn't even noticed the headache, but as soon as Jason mentioned it her skull began to throb.

"Ow, yeah. Where are we?"

"No clue." Jason replied, rubbing his forehead. "Hazel's trying to find a way out, but it doesn't look like there's any exits unless we climb back up."

From the far wall, Percy snorted. "Too bad there's no good footholds, Grace."

Piper frowned. "Something grabbed my foot, though. Is there-"

"We thought it'd be better if we just brought you down instead of letting you panic." Jason answered, giving a shrug. "Frank really freaked Percy out with that idea."

"He's awake?"

Jason nodded to where the other demigod was. Sitting on the floor with his head in his hands and murmuring something in Latin, was good ol' Frank Zhang.

"Is he okay?" Piper asked, raising an eyebrow. He didn't get any ambrosia from earlier because he had been unconscious, and now he had suffered yet another fall. Piper hoped that the guy hadn't hit his head too hard.

"He'll be fine." Jason assured her, though his voice led her to believe he was doubtful. Piper cast another glance at Frank before turning her gaze back to Jason.

"What about you?"

Jason smiled. "I'm fine, too."

Piper felt as if that single moment was perfect, like it was something that only happened in movies or books. Jason's eyes, despite the darkness around them, shone their usual light blue and his smile was somehow charming even with it's imperfect little scar. Piper would have kissed him if not for the others being able to see.

And then, Annabeth's alarmed voice ripped Piper out of the perfect moment.

"The roof is sealing up!" Annabeth said, pointing upwards.

Piper scowled and looked upwards. She didn't know what she expected, but she saw exactly what Annabeth had exclaimed.

The patches where the light shone through were making their way together, making a wall of earth between the six demigods and the surface.

"Oh, gods no." Piper whispered, pushing past Jason and rushing towards the far wall. She hadn't even noticed it before, but there were holes lining the entire stone. Round little passage ways that buried into the earth, all of them beginning to pour out water.


	9. Leo: IX :Give Up

The Problem With Leo Valdez  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunately- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: Geez, guys. How long was I gone?

This chapter is pretty short, sorry! I just wanted to get back into the swing of things.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: IX<strong>  
><strong>LEO<strong>

_**Give Up**_

If Leo had even the slightest clue on where he was, then maybe he wouldn't have felt like a giant harpy was tearing at his stomach. He, however, did _not_ know his current location, and so the imaginary harpy continued on with its ripping and shredding.

If anything, Leo really wanted a hug, or maybe even a slice of chocolate cake to calm his nerves.

The scene around him wasn't a pretty one. He was underground, that much was obvious, but any other revelation was lost from there. There were no signs, no notes, no secret passageways that could somehow be found, unlocked, and opened. Leo was at a complete disadvantage here, and frankly he didn't think any of it was very fair.

"Alright, you got me." Leo muttered, throwing his hands up in the air. "You win, Gaea! Okay? Now let me out of this damned hole in the ground or I swear to Hephaestus I'll-"

_Do not speak rash with me, demigod._ Gaea's voice seethed. _In case you have forgotten so quickly, I'm the one who is in charge._

Leo puffed out his cheeks and clapped his hands together. "Great! Fantastic! Let's hit a Dairy Queen and buy a cake or something, eh?"

_You believe you are clever, Valdez. It is a shame that you are not the genius you've fooled yourself into thinking you are._

Leo lowered an eyebrow. "That's a lot of 'you's', lady. How about we quit yapping on about _me _and focus more on _you_. What's your starting price to get me outta this dump?"

It was silence that answered him at first, but no doubt, Gaea pulled through with her usual carefully selected answer.

He and her had done a lot of talking since he had first woken up, which was a surprise since before that she'd only worked through that annoyin Eidolon. Mostly their conversations went something like:

Gaea: You suck.

Leo: I'm aware.

Gaea: Idiot. There's no trap door.

Leo: So I see.

Gaea: Your friends are going to die if you don't hurry this up.

Leo: You've told me that already.

But now, Leo was getting desperate. He had been trapped underground for too long, and really it was getting downright uncomfortable. He liked being in places where the earth over top of him couldn't crumble, or more specifically, where the only thing over his head was a nice, well constructed roof.

Whatever Gaea was asking for, Leo had decided he'd at least think about it first.

_You are valuable, Valdez._ Gaea hissed. _If you wished, you could set an entire city up in flames._

Ah, yes. Because Leo _totally_ digged being responsible for the deaths of thousands. Yes. Great way to start a business deal, Toilet Sludge.

_What I am asking for is your power, little hero. I need to use it in order to win this war._

"If an entire war is depending on one scrawny elf-man, I'm afraid you've got a military problem." Leo remarked, folding his hands across his chest. "Why me, anyway? Can't you just make up a monster who has fire powers?"

_Do you mistake me for a fool? Creating monsters could take centuries! I do not have that kind of time!_ Gaea screeched, her voice ringing in Leo's ears.

"Then just. . . I don't know, _covert _one to your gory cause. Be like, '_Excuse me, do you have time to speak about total word domination, death, and doom?_' It's foolproof, trust me."

Even though she wasn't physically there, Leo could feel Gaea's anger towards him. He wasn't cooperating like she had planned, he knew, but really he was just trying to stall.

Surely his friends could figure out where he was, couldn't they? Like, sure he had attacked and burned Annabeth, and was probably responsible for the blackout in some way, but it hadn't actually been _him_. None of his friends had any reason to hate and ignore him. They'd pull through. . . eventually.

_I am not going to waste my time pleading for your permission, Valdez. If you will not willingly join me, then I will take you by force._

Gaea didn't need to give any further explanation for Leo to understand. He knew what she meant. It was clear as crystal to him.

The stupid Eidolon was coming back.

"Wait!" Leo blurted out, knowing that if the Eidolon took control again, there'd be no way it'd allow Leo's friends to help. "Don't you need to test me? You know, to make sure I meet all the Gaea's Army qualifications?"

_I do not need to assess how skilled you are in your ability, little hero. It will be my son who does the fighting, all you will need to do is not let yourself die._

Leo wasn't sure if he liked that idea. It sounded like he'd be a puppet more than some supreme member of a prophecy, and truthfully that didn't make him feel all so good.

He was already the extra wheel in the group, the one that gave it an uneven number. The last thing Leo needed was to be the one who burnt everyone alive against his own will, too.

However, before he could complain, Leo felt the most horrific feeling in the world for yet another time. Slowly he began to lose control of his arms, then legs, and then suddenly it felt like he was being pushed out of his own body, as if there wasn't enough room for him anymore.

Not at all for the first time, Leo felt like he was watching himself do things while he was shoved off to the side, completely helpless. It made him feel anger over anything else. He wasn't upset, he wasn't distraught, he was purely and completely angry. He was just a toy in Gaea's plans, it seemed, and it was really starting to take some stabs at him.

Above anything, though, was that no one was coming to his rescue. Normally he wouldn't have been up to someone swooping in and saving the day, but it felt like none of his friends were even trying. There were no signs of battle going on outside. No one shouting his name, desperately trying to find him.

_They left you._ Gaea breathed in his ears.

She was right. His friends had left him on his own, even after Jason and Percy had learned what was going on with him.

_They don't care, do they? If they did, you'd have someone fighting for you right now._

The realization made his stomach twist, and then his anger began to slowly fade away.

_You're friends might not value your worth, but _I_ do._

What had he been thinking? Of course none of his friends wanted to find him. They could do just fine without an annoying, hyperactive demigod. He shouldn't have ever left the Wilderness School, or even better, he should have been good and stayed in Houston.

_You can get your revenge-_ Gaea began to say, but Leo cut her off.

"I don't want revenge." He said, slumping his shoulders. It was true, he didn't. Even if his friends weren't going to come and find him, he didn't want to rage any kind of war on them.

After all, he didn't blame them for wanting to leave him to die.

_They don't see how great you are, little hero. I do, and I understand exactly what you're feeling. The gods cast me out, just as your friends did to you. I know what you're feeling._

She was playing with his head, Leo could feel it, but at that moment he believed she was right. She was telling him the opposite, but Leo was feeling completely worthless.

He felt like he wanted to give up, to give in to Gaea's plans.

In the darkness of the underground room, Leo's eyes burned gold.


	10. Leo: X :Masked

The Problem With Leo Valdez  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunetly- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: I am a terrible writer and an even worse person.  
>So sorry, Frank. You may or may not be coming back.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: X<strong>  
><strong>LEO<strong>

_Masked_

After his little chat with Gaea, Leo had completely blacked out. It wasn't even nice and gradual, either. It was more like '_BAM! Sorry kiddo, you're out!_' and then suddenly he awoke to water swimming in his lungs.

For someone who could combust into flames, Leo certainly wasn't feeling too hot. Heck. . . he was actually feeling pretty cold.

His eyes snapped open, and when his senses kicked in Leo could feel the freezing water around him hitting against his face. Panicking (because how humiliating would it be if he was killed by none other than the opposite of his powers?) the boy kicked his feet off the muddy ground and aimed for air.

"Holy Hephaestus," He muttered, his teeth chattering when he reached the surface. "Is it freaking December in here or what?"

Of course, Leo hadn't been expecting any answers, so the replies he got nearly scared him out of his shorts.

"_Leo_?" A voice said, and Leo recalled it belonging to a rather angry son of Poseidon. "What the hell?"

A few other voices chipped in, them belonging to Annabeth, Hazel, and Jason, but Leo decided to focus solely on Percy.

"Nice to see you, too." He grinned, turning himself in the water so he could face him. If Gaea hadn't been lying to him during one of their previous chats, then Leo had definitely tried to kill the son of the sea god, as well as Annabeth and Jason. Whatever the Earth goddess had been thinking when she plopped him down here with the three people she had made him nearly murder. . . well, Leo was in need of an explanation.

"How did you get down here?" Jason demanded. He sounded no more friendly than Percy did, and truthfully it made Leo wince. Jason Grace was his best friend, and as Blank Canvas-y and sometimes boring as he was, Leo hated seeing him be so hostile.

"Look, guys. I've got no clue-"

"Yeah, right. Like we're gonna buy that." Percy snarled, scowling at him. "Try telling us the _truth_, elf-face."

Hazel gave him a puzzled look, as if to say '_Don't bash on his ugliness, buddy_', but Leo figured her thoughts were much more Hazel-y than that; more polite. Still, they were probably on the same page.

Leo frowned at Percy. "I _am_ telling the truth! I don't even know when I stumbled off, man, much less how I got stuck in a hell-pit of a swimming pool. How did _you_ get here?" Was that why they hadn't helped him while was in the other room?

It made sense, and Leo felt shameful for moping about how his friends had left him to die. They had their own problems to deal with, evidently.

Piper nodded, and Leo was grateful that she was there with them. She'd defend him, surely. She'd kick Percy and Jason _both_ in the face for ever questioning his loyalty.

"How can we trust you?" The girl snapped, shattering Leo's feeble bit of hope.

He nearly choked on the water that was now getting past his chin. "What do you mean, 'how can you trust me'? We're in _water_, for Zeus' sake! I can't do anything!" Leo wanted to scream at them, all of them. He knew that he was already doing that, but maybe if he just had an amplifier like Coach Hedge. . .

No one was sparing his feelings, and it was making him want to set a birds nest on fire and watch as it all burned. Like, _HAHAHA, YOU ARE AT MY MERCY, PUNY BIRDS. LISTEN TO ME OR WATCH AS ALL THAT YOU LOVE CRUMBLES TO ASHES AT YOUR UGLY LITTLE BIRD FEET. MWHAHA!_

"We can't believe anything he says while his eyes are like that." Annabeth muttered to Hazel, her voice pulling Leo out of his dark, bird murdering thoughts.

He blinked at her, obviously confused. "My eyes?" He asked, wondering what she meant.

Leo wasn't stupid. He knew that he had a freaky Eidolon inside him, one that was more than eager to kill just about anything that moved, and he knew that when it took control his eyes would sometimes turn gold.

But Leo didn't feel like anything was controlling him.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Stop pretending to be him!" Piper shouted. Even in the dark, Leo could see the rage in her eyes, but he could also feel the slightest bit of Charmspeak in her voice.

It gave him an idea.

"Piper-"

"Why don't you just stop talking, huh?" Percy snarled, glaring at him. Leo was sure that if they weren't all trying to stay afloat, then Percy would have Riptide pushed up against his throat.

"I want to _help_." Leo insisted. "Guys, please. It's me!"

Hazel let out a sharp breath, grabbing Leo's attention. "We don't have time for this." She huffed, scowling. "Percy, can you try controlling the water?"

"Already thought of that." Percy sighed as he rolled his eyes. "No use. Gaea's got this whole thing in the palm of her grimy little hands. . . I can't do anything."

_Look at how easy they're giving up. Is it not pathetic?_ The Eidolon's voice hissed in Leo's ears. _The Fates must have been mistaken when they deemed those six as Heroes. It appears that the only demigod they got right was you, Valdez. How unfortunate for the gods._

Leo tried to push the voice out of his head, but the stupid thing was persistent and just kept talking.

_The Earth Mother will not allow any of them to be killed yet, but trust me, son of Hephaestus, you will watch them suffer. Even right now, do you see how sad they are? They are losing hope, getting ready to drown. Do you know how Perseus Jackson feels? It is crushing him, Leo Valdez. He is not ready to die yet._

He wanted to go to college, Leo remembered. Annabeth had been talking about it only a few days ago. Percy had wanted to go to college, buy a house, pay for a vacation for his mother and Paul. . . when Annabeth had explained, she had made it seem like Percy was so excited for the war to be over so he could get on with his life.

Now, he was thinking that these were his last moments, trapped with a person who he thought wanted to kill him.

But he's not going to die, Leo thought. None of them are.

_You are right._ The Eidolon agreed._ However, that does not stop their pain. Hazel Levesque fears her second death, she does not feel as if she has lived it to its fullest. Annabeth Chase wishes she could have said her goodbyes to her family, and blames herself for not patching up her relationship with them. Jason Grace believes he has failed his camp and it's praetor. Piper McLean knows that you, Leo Valdez, would not harm her, but already she is making plans to kill you if needed. She no longer trusts you._

Leo felt his lips forming into a frown.

What about Frank?

_The son of Mars? His thoughts are no longer reachable by the Earth Mother. _

No longer reachable. . .

Leo's heart began to race.

"Zhang. . ." He blurted out, his eyes searching the room. "Where's Frank?"

At first neither Percy or Jason believed his worry, but when Hazel and the other two girls began to panic as well, the fear could be seen as it flashed across their faces.

"Is he underwater?" Hazel cried.

"Percy, go look!"

"It's too dark for me to see anything down there!"

"Just _go_!"

Leo remembered the time where he would have laughed about the son of the sea's fear of drowning, but at that moment he could sympathize with him.

"You can do it." Leo said, trying to be encouraging.

His eyes must have still been glowing gold, because Percy didn't even bother to look at him before he dove under the water.

Leo let out an annoyed sigh. He didn't mean for it to come out so loud, but Piper shot him an irritated look just moments after.

"If you want to stop making things worse for yourself, you'd quit pretending to be our friend." She said, her voice quiet.

Leo stared at her. "But I-"

"_Stop_." Piper hissed, holding her hand out in front of her. ". . . If I tried using my Charmspeak to get you out of him, you'd only attack me, right? You wouldn't let me do it?"

"No, do it!" Leo urged, nodding. It was what he had been thinking about earlier, it was perfect! "_C'mon, Piper. Try to help me._" As those last words slipped out his mouth, Leo was reminded of who was really in control. He hadn't said them, the Eidolon had. Piper had sensed it too, and quickly her almost-caring expression hardened into one that was much colder.

"Of course you would." She laughed, shaking her head.

"_Is it funny_?" The Eidolon asked, taking a step closer to her. "_Honestly, I am not a big fan of death, and the poor reminder that we are not all immortal is nothing to laugh about, my dear daughter of Aphrodite_."

Piper glared at him, but said nothing. The others were too busy waiting for Percy to pop out of the water with Frank in his arms to bother paying attention.

"_You make one move against us, Piper McLean, and we will make sure it is the last thing your disgusting soul will ever do. Is that clear_?"

"Don't threaten me." Piper growled, not even phased by the Eidolon's words. "If you think for one moment that you can get away with what you've done, you're wrong."

"_Oh_," The Eidolon said, its voice sounding almost amused. "_Is that it? Well, I am most certainly impressed by your brave words, but if they were true, then where is the demigod you know as Frank Zhang_?"

As if it were on cue, Percy's head emerged from the water. Although Leo didn't feel the control over his body switch, he immediately looked towards Piper with a million apologies racing through his mind.

"I'm-"

"He's gone." Percy gasped out, wiping his dark hair out of his face. No one seemed to notice the conversation between Piper and Leo. "He's not- he's not anywhere down there."

"Then where could he be?" Hazel demanded. Her eyes turned towards Leo, and the boy felt guilt wash over him. "Where is he?"

It was childish, but all Leo could do was shrug.

"I've had it with this guy." Jason snarled, wading his way through the water towards him. "Either you tell us where Frank is and get us out of here, or I'll-"

"Jason." Percy said, cutting the Roman off. He shook his head, as if to say '_don't piss the freakazoid off, alright dude?_'

The corners of Leo's mouth twisted into a grin. "_No, Jason Grace._" The Eidolon said. "_I do not mind._"

And that was the last thing Leo remembered before the world went dark. Again.

Briefly, he wondered if this was how Jason felt all those times he had gotten hit with bricks.


	11. Piper: XI :Decisions

The Problem With Leo Valdez  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunetly- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: With the recent Blood of Olympus cover release and the theories sworming around two certain demigods and giants, I have either a new short story idea, or finally an actual plot for this thing.  
>Whichever one I pick, I am <em>so so<em> sorry Piper & Leo.

Also! Please do not worry about Frank being dead... because he's still very much alive and he WILL return sometime.  
>... Perhaps an antagonist due to an Eidolon, hm?<p>

oOOH and YES I am aware of how short this is.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: XI<strong>  
><strong>Piper<strong>

_Decisions_

Piper was exhausted. Her brain needed a rest, her legs hurt, and her arms ached as if she had been hanging in a tree all day. She was tired, and all she wanted to do was lay down in her bunk back at Camp Half-Blood and have a nice, long nap.

That, however, would not be happening any time soon.

She had been woken up to the sound of inaudible muttering (though she wasn't sure _when_ exactly she had fallen asleep) and had kept her eyes shut tight until she could understand what the speaker was saying.

"Really!" He insisted. "I don't remember how we got here, but I got you out of that hell-hole, didn't I? Stop with the freaking ropes already!"

Automatically, Piper recognized the voice.

"Leo," She said, opening her eyes. What she saw surprised her. Back where the _Argo II_ had crashed, Piper was laying beside a sleeping Annabeth and a sitting Hazel while Jason and Percy tied Leo's arms up.

The boy's head turned to her at the sound of her voice, and Piper flinched when she saw his golden eyes light up with excitement. The Eidolon still hadn't left, even after it had somehow taken Frank away. Who else did it want from the group?

"Tell them to let me go!" Leo pleaded, narrowing his eyes at Percy. "Where'd you get the ropes, anyway? Didn't they go kaboom with everything else?"

Percy just pulled the ropes tighter around Leo's wrists.

Piper forced herself to her feet and wandered towards them. "What are you doing?" She asked, her question directed at Jason.

He lowered an eyebrow. "What does it look like?" He retorted, then let his shoulders fall. "I don't like it either, but at least this way we'll know when he's about to do something."

"Right, right. 'Cause we just can't trust Valdez, can we?" Leo huffed.

"Yeah, we can't." Piper frowned, remembering their earlier conversation. "Not with the freaky eyes, at least."

"I _told _you already," Leo groaned, throwing his head back in annoyance. "I don't know any more than you do!"

Jason only shrugged. He had been so serious before, but now, out in the open and not in a situation where he could drown, he looked like his regular self. "Which gives us all the more reason to not trust what you're telling us, man. Eyes don't change colour for the fun of it, alright? You could be being controlled right now and not even know it."

"Whatever." Leo muttered, pulling his hands away after Percy had finished tying them together. "We're not going to get anything done if we don't start working together on this."

"What we need to do is go East so we can get to Athens." Hazel muttered, rubbing her temples. "All before the Feast of Spes, which is on. . . August first. Oh gods, how are we going to get there on time? And without Frank, too. . ."

Piper gave her an attempt at an uplifting smile. The daughter of Pluto was strong, but they all had been through so much and it was no surprise that she was worrying.

"We'll do it. Somehow, we'll figure out a way." Piper promised.

Percy kicked a stray pebble. "Gaea will probably drag our butts to Athens, anyway. You know, to use two of us as _sacrifices _and whatnot."

Jason nodded, his expression grim. "One way or another, I guess we'll be there on time."

Sitting down on his plot on the grass, Leo tried to throw dirt at the two boys with his feet.

"Can you guys stop being a bunch of lousy downers?" He snapped, frowning. "Like I said, we gotta work together. I can whip up a chariot or something, and Percy can call Blackjack and Jason, you can try to get your horse shaped storm cloud under control. If not. . . Hazel, can Arion fly?"

Hazel put her hands down and glared at him. "Does he _look_ like he has wings?"

"Woah, alright. I was just-"

"No, Leo. He can't fly. And he's a _cavalry_ horse, anyway, not a chariot one."

"Right, right. 'Cause I know all about horses. My mistake." Leo huffed, looking away from her.

Hazel, however, kept her gaze fixed to the boy. "You're the one that got us in to this mess in the first place, Leo." She hissed at him. "_You_ do something!"

Leo's eyebrows furrowed, and Piper could literally feel the frustration circling around him. "What do you think I'm trying to do?" He nearly shouted, his voice sounding strained as he tried not to yell. "I'm sorry I did a bunch of stuff that I don't even remember doing, okay? Sorry for messing things up!"

"Like you always do." Hazel spat, sprouting to her feet. She glanced over at Piper, a defeated look in her eyes, then hung her head. "I'm sorry." She said quietly after a few moments. "I just. . . I need a walk."

As soon as she was out of earshot, Percy wacked Leo on the head. "Way to go." He muttered before flopping down on the grass as well. "So I guess we're totally going to die, huh? I mean, at least if we had Frank he could have turned into a dragon and we could fly or something, I guess. . ."

Jason raised an eyebrow in amusement. "A son of Neptune pondering defeat? Well, give me sandels and call me Mercury." He chuckled. Piper guessed that it had sounded much funnier to her boyfriend, but to her it sounded like something straight from a cheesy Roman-based kids cartoon.

"Neptune may be different, but Poseidon would be telling me to sit back and enjoy an iced-tea right about now. Of course, that'd be if he bothered to chat." Percy muttered, flicking a strand of grass backwards.

"Father issues between you and Big P., fantastic. Can we figure out how we're gonna get out of here now?" Leo chipped in.

Jason shrugged. "We don't even know where _here_ is."

"Then let me go check if the ships GPS is working!"

Piper frowned. "Was it with the computer system stuff you had going on up at the main deck?" She asked.

Leo nodded.

"Then it's gone."

"You saw it?"

Piper gestured to the remaining half of the _Argo II_, and then to all its bits scattered around.

"I'm pretty sure it's gone, Valdez." She half-laughed.

Leo clapped his hands together and turned towards Jason. "Come on, man!" He begged. Even with the Eidolon eyes, he managed to pull off a pretty good pleading puppy face. "Let go of the stupid leash thingamajig, and me and Beauty Queen can go check for supplies on the ship!"

Piper felt a chill go down her spine. After their conversation in the water... she hardly comfortable going anywhere with Leo, let alone completely by themselves.

"Maybe one of you two could come too, then?" Piper offered, looking at her boyfriend.

"I think I'll stick here with Annabeth and wait for Hazel to get back." Percy muttered, shooting a glance at Leo. "But you three can do whatever, I guess."

"Great!" Leo grinned, shooting to his feet. "Let's go?"

Jason nodded. "Let's go."


	12. Piper: XII :Deception

The Problem With Leo Valdez  
>Disclaimer: <em>All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR.<em>  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunately- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

A/N: For the length of this chapter, the quality is shit. I'm so sorry.

I haven't been doing too hot health wise lately (screw you appendix!) and on top of that twisted my ankle, so while I've been stuck in bed I've also been writing!

And, pssst. How would you guys feel if I put this story up on Wattpad?

EDITED ON 21/06/14: Because the next chapter won't be out for awhile and I'm too impatient to wait, I'm updating the cover now! It might take a day or two to show up, but I really like it.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: XII<strong>  
><strong>Piper<strong>

_Deception_

Once they were inside the ship (half of it), Leo scurried off to search for anything he could salvage. Piper heard him muttering something about Buford as he went, and for the first time since they had crashed she wondered if the creepy little table was alright. Hopefully he still had all four legs, at least.

"It's probably not safe to be here. . ." Jason murmered as he ducked under a pipe that had fallen from the ceiling. "I mean, the place could explode any minute."

"Explode?" Piper repeated, finding the idea amusing. "This isn't an action movie, you know."

Jason furrowed his eyebrows and stepped over a hole in the flooring. "Do you trust him?" He asked suddenly, though at first Piper wasn't sure what he meant.

"Trust who?"

"Leo, obviously."

Piper stopped walking and stared at him. _Did_ she trust Leo? If she had, she wouldn't have suggested that Jason should come with them into the _Argo II_. If she had, she wouldn't feel so nervous when around the guy. But. . .

Of course she trusted Leo. With her life, actually (though maybe not 100%, as Leo really knew how to screw things up). What she didn't trust was the Eidolon inside him.

"I don't think . . . No. Not fully." Were the words that blurted out of her mouth. "He's so unpredictable right now. Honestly, Jason, I don't know whether to trust him or not. I just-"

"Relax." Jason cut her off, a small smirk appearing on his face. "It's just a question, and I was only asking because neither Percy or Hazel seem to believe a word Leo says. I wanted your opinion."

Piper took that into consideration. "Do _you_ believe him?" She asked.

Jason made a sour face. "Gods, no. That monster is definitely up to something, but I _trust_ that it's not going to kill any of us."

"Yet." Piper added, her voice coming out heavy. He had already tried to.

"Yet." Jason acknowleged. "I wish you could charmspeak the Eidolon right out of him like you did last time. Everything would be so much easier."

"He'd barbacue me before I could open my mouth, Jason." Piper laughed, though she was dead serious. She couldn't erase the look Leo had given earlier her from her mind. She knew that it wasn't really him, but his face. . .

Leo Valdez had looked purely evil. And now, with his eyes glowing constantly. . . Piper couldn't shake the feeling that the boy scrounging around the ship at the moment was still the Eidolon. Her friend even before they knew they were demigods. Her- her _brother_ practically. Piper hated not being able to trust or believe him, and she hated knowing that she _had_ to stay suspicious.

"We'll make it out of this mess somehow." Jason muttered as he kicked one of the floorboards that had been pushed up. "We could build a chariot of some sort, or a makeshift ship if there's an ocean around here."

"Do you think we could find any drachmas?"

"For what?"

"To send an Iris Message to Reyna and Nico. I know that they're busy with their own stuff right now, but if we don't think of a way out of this place, then why not?"

Jason gave her a doubtful look. "We have no idea where we crashed. I don't think even Reyna could find us."

"Well what about Nico?" Piper pushed. She was growing desperate for a solution, and the two demigods felt like the only chance of giving them one. Yeah, the group could put together a chariot and get Blackjack and Tempest to fly it, or sure they could somehow get a ship going, but Nico and Reyna could get other demigods to help them. At the very least they could inform Camp Half-Blood what had happened to the Seven.

Jason only shrugged. "I... I honestly don't know, Piper. Even if the statue was delivered, our two camps could still be at war right now. Nico's probably busy fighting just like everyone else."

"Chiron, then?"

"Piper. . ."

"We have to do _something_, Jason." Piper groaned, folding her arms over her chest before lowering an eyebrow at her boyfriend. "I know you've got your Roman dignity to think of, or something. . . but-"

"Excuse me?"

"Maybe that wasn't the right way to phrase it." Piper sighed, frowning. "Listen, I know that you used to be a preator, but asking for help isn't a bad thing."

"I never said it was. . .?"

"We're stuck in Gods-Knows-Where with a murderous Eidolon who probably killed Frank, and you're rejecting every idea I have that calls us asking for help." Piper pointed out.

Jason stared at her. "Fine." He finally said after a few rather awkward moments of silence. "We've got six days before August first, I think. If we can't figure out anything by tomorrow, the we'll try to get help from Camp Half-Blood, alright?"

Piper nodded. She was happy that he was finally agreeing to something, that they were finally getting somewhere, but something in her gut told her that the delicate moment wouldn't last. Figured, too. Nothing good ever lasted for demigods, apparently.

"Do you hear that?" Piper asked, suddenly alert. It had been faint, but she could have sworn that she heard a creaking noise coming from somewhere up ahead of them. "Jason, listen." She whispered.

The son of Jupiter narrowed his eyes, and the two of them fell completely silent. When nearly a minute passed and neither of them heard anything further, Jason shrugged. "Maybe it was Leo?" He suggested.

Piper nodded, but the feeling of uneasiness didn't subside. "What if it is?"

"Do you want to go check it out?"

". . . It couldn't hurt."

Piper felt horrible. Was a creaking noise, coming from a ship that had been _torn in half and 1/2 destroyed_, really enough to make her automatically assume Leo was up to no good? She knew he was dangerous right now, she knew he could switch to attack-mode at any minute, she had just been talking about how terrible he was at the moment, but thinking of him like that made Piper feel sick. A big part of her still wanted to believe that no, her friend Leo Valdez wasn't a threat. A smaller part of her argued that she was being dumb.

Tentatively, Piper reached for Jason's hand, and the two moved forward.

* * *

><p>"Leo?" Jason called, peering out into the darkness of the hallway. Piper had tried to tell him that going to the darkest part of a broken ship wasn't the brightest idea, but obviously he hadn't listened to her complaints. While Piper couldn't say she hated him, it was true that the guy was an idiot.<p>

Something clanged in the walls, and Piper immediately felt childish for jumping at the sudden noise. She was the daughter of Aphrodite, for gods' sake! Though admittedly the goddess of love wasn't much of a fighter, and much preffered ruining lives rather than battle, Piper could easily imagine her mother scowling down at her as she sat on Olympus and watched Hephaestus TV.

Grow up! Piper imagined her muttering. C'mon, throw in a few punches!

How embarassing.

Another clunk sounded, followed by a series of creaks. At first Piper thought that Festus was somehow speaking to them, but the noises were too inconsistant to be caused by a working machine.

"Jason," Piper said, annoyed that her voice shook. She wasn't afraid that she would get hurt, and certainly wasn't worried about fighting, but what Piper feared was seeing Leo being ready to attack her and Jason.

"Do you think he's here?" Piper asked, forcing the words to come out steady this time.

Jason slipped his hand away from hers and took a few steps forward. "Come on dude, if this is a joke-"

"What?" The voice asked, sounding so familiar and yet astoundingly different. Piper didn't believe that it was really Leo talking. It couldn't be.

"I mean," Jason continued, not at all fazed. "You're freaking us out with all that creaking and stuff, man. Watcha doing?"

The set of glowing gold eyes popped out from the darkness, and a few seconds later Leo strolled over, a grin on his face and a roll of duct-tape in his hand.

"Shoot," He apologized, scratching his head. "Didn't mean to, honest. There's this freakin' pipe that got torn off, and I've to stick it back on with this, but..." He continued, holding up the tape and shaking it in the air. Leo's frown fell from his face when he saw Piper glaring at him. "...Uh, everything okay?"

Piper didn't understand. Halfway through his explanation, his voice had changed again. It had sounded odd and different for the first bit, then suddenly it had switched back to normal.

"What do you think you're doing?" Piper snarled.

Leo blinked. His eyes quickly glanced at Jason, then back at Piper, and the boy seemed completely at loss. "I don't..."

"Don't play stupid," Piper hissed, jabbing a finger at him. "You're not Leo, so don't think for one second that you can-"

"Hey hey hey," Leo interupted, furrowing his eyebrows. "I'm not _who_? I'm sorry, did I suddenly change into Hazel or Will or Clovis in the past hour? I-" He snapped, then froze. His expression relaxed and nervously Leo began tapping his fingers against his pant-leg. "I know what you meant. Sorry. Really though, it's _me_."

Without question or even the slightest moment of thought, Jason nodded. "Alright," He said with a shrug. "We should get back to Percy and Annabeth, don't you think?"

Leo beamed and nodded his head, though Piper shot Jason a sharp look of '_What in the name of Zeus do you think you're doing?_'

As Leo fumbled to put the roll of tape back in his toolbelt, Jason shook his head slightly and mouthed the words 'I have a plan'.

Piper lowered an eyebrows in question, but didn't have enough time to ask before Leo hopped in step beside her, and the three of them began to make their way out of the ship.

* * *

><p>Of course, Piper knew that things were going to go wrong. With the ship crashing, the Eidolon, and Frank probably dead, there was no way in Hades that everything would suddenly just <em>get better<em>. Noo, of course not! It'd be an outrage if life were to be so simple.

What Piper should have known, however, was that no matter what Jason's plan had been, it wouldn't work if the field was smothered in flames.

"When do you think Hazel will be back?" Leo asked, kicking a pebble and sending it a good few feet forward. "I really think she's starting to hate me, you know. Kinda wanted to apologize."

Piper plopped herself down on the grass and shrugged. She hoped that Annabeth had woken up, and her and Percy had gone to look for Hazel, explaining why neither of them were present, but no doubt that probably wasn't it.

"I don't know." Piper huffed, rolling her eyes. "Just be quiet and don't do anything, alright?"

Leo scowled, then layed down on the grass and began flicking strands over at Jason.

"Stop," Jason said once his knee was covered in grass. "That's gross."

Leo smirked and tossed another handful at him. "You lived with wolves when you were a baby," He pointed out in a sneering tone. "_That's_ gross, Dog-Boy. I bet you still have fleas."

"What?"

"Do you want to go for a walk, puppy?"

"That's not funny."

"How about the park, huh? Dogs _love _the park."

Piper let out an annoyed sigh. "Leo, knock it off." She muttered, glancing around for any of the three missing demigods. The way her friend was acting was starting to put her on the edge of her seat. That is... if she actually had a seat to sit on.

Leo's grin turned in to a smirk. "What did you say, Piper? Sorry, I don't speak canine."

"...Excuse me?"

"Well, you're a dog too, aren't you?" Leo asked, cocking his head to the side. "Yeah... I think, an ugly little mutt, right? No wonder why your dad ignored you for so long, I don't blame him!"

"Leo!" Jason snapped, obviously angered by the boy's comment. "What the hell?"

Piper could only stare at him. A _mutt_. He had called her a mutt. Not only that, but had dared to bring up her dad into the insult as well. She didn't like to admit it, but the words genuenly stung.

Whatever Jason had planned, Piper wished that he'd bring it in to action now.

"Aww, you two," Leo said as he rose to his feet. "Don't look so offended, it's only the truth!" He sneered, the golden colour in his eyes somehow glowing brighter. "You both are basically worthless, aren't you? But _sacrifices_... oh! A daring son of Jupiter and a lovely daughter of Aphrodite would be perfect!"

Piper saw Jason reach for his sword, but paused when he realized the weapon was still on the ship.

"You really think we'd come with you willingly?" Piper laughed, trying to buy time. "How are you going to get us out of here? You can't!" She spat at him, making sure to throw a little charmspeak into her voice. Talking was what she was good at, Piper reminded herself. Words were stronger than swords. Sometimes.

Leo waved the words away. "_Do you think I'm an idiot, Piper McLean?_ _Do you think I'd simply ask for you to come with me? Expect that you would dance your ways over to Gaea? Don't mistake me for such a fool, because I, thankfully, am _much _smarter than my host. I have different methods of getting what I want_." He growled, his voice pitch altering again.

Piper didn't know what he was talking about until Leo held out his hands and two burst of blue fire erupted from them. Even from where she was sitting, she could feel the heat of the flames.

"_Truthfully Gaea wishes it to be Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase to be her sacrifices, but personally I think one Roman and one Greek would be better suited for the occasion_." The Eidolon mused as it took a step forward. "_Now, if it could be Perseus and Hazel... well, that'd be even better! To bad they didn't show up_."

Piper's eyes widened, and Jason squinted. "Fighting a son of Jupiter isn't a good idea." He snarled.

Leo's left eyebrow raised, and the smirk on his face deepened. "_You're right, it's not_." He agreed, fixing his eyes on the blue flames sprouting from his hands. "_But luckily for me, I don't think I'll be doing much fighting_."


	13. Leo: XIII :Rejected

**The Problem With Leo Valdez**  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: _All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR._  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunately- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

**A/N**: Aaah, you guys are so nice in your reviews it's making me feel all fuzzy inside.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: XIII<strong>  
><strong>Leo<strong>

_Rejected_

Leo didn't know what he was doing. One second he was digging through supplies, then he was smashing pipes, and now he was... shooting fireballs at his friends? Yeah. Great. What a way to earn their trust, me! He scolded, mentally smacking himself upside the head. This was _not_ the way to convince everyone that he wasn't going to murder them.

"Aw, geeze..." Leo grumbled, jerking his hands back and shoving them into his pockets. "Swear to Hera, I didn't mean to do that just now."

Across from him, Jason looked like he was 100% done and ready to conjure up some lighting that would zap him to death. Piper had a tree branch ready to launch into his skull, which wasn't overly welcoming. What had happened in the past five or ten minutes was a mystery to Leo (other than the 'KILL THEM WITH FIRE!' stuff that had apparently been going on), but obviously it hadn't been good. Obviously. Jason's left leg was all ripped up and Piper had dirt and rocks grounded into her face. A real fashion show they had going on, huh? Maybe they could make it on to America's Next Top Model if they were lucky.

"His eyes," Piper said, her voice little more than a whisper. Jason nodded, dropped his arms and folded them over his chest.

"Leo, buddy? You back?" He asked, his voice somewhat skittish.

"Yes! Hello!" Leo cheered, throwing his hands up into the air and hoping they wouldn't catch fire again. "Valdez-Man is back! Please, drop those hostile attitudes and explain what the holy Hephaestus just happened. Please."

"You nearly _killed us_ is what happened!" Piper screeched, shoving the branch at him. "Do you know what you did to Jason?"

Leo shook his head.

"You tried to make a Jason Grace barbecue special! You _burned_ his _leg_."

At first glance, Leo hadn't thought that Jason's leg injury was too bad, but taking another look at it made Leo realize how much damage had actually been done to the poor thing. The flesh was red and beginning to blister, but thankfully it wasn't bad enough to make Leo gag.

Still, he was surprised at how his friend was managing to stand.

"I did that?"

"Not you," Jason muttered, wincing as he shifted his weight over to the other foot. "The Eidolon." He reminded him. "We gotta get that thing out..."

Leo heard the words, but they didn't quite register in his brain. This wasn't the first time that he had hurt one of his friends so badly. Annabeth was healing thanks to the ambrosia, but that didn't erase the fact that he had tried to strangle her.

And what about Frank? Leo's relationship with the Chinese-Canadian Baby Man was strained, but even possessed Leo didn't think he'd allow himself to _kill_ him. Maybe, like, tackle or kick, but not end his life. Still...

"Hey, Leo." Piper said, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Are you listening?"

Leo's eyes darted back to Jason's burn, completely ignoring Piper. He had done that. _He_ had tried to murder Annabeth. _He_ was responsible for Frank's disappearance. Three of the other demigods were nowhere in sight, and for all Leo knew he could have been behind that, too.

He may not have been a murderer, but the _yet_ was always plausible.

"I..." Leo faltered, feeling his shoulders sag. "I gotta sit down. For a minute."

"Me too." Jason grunted, falling right over.

Leo could only stare at what was in front of him, which in his case was a patch of what used to be fresh grass. Now? It looked like something aunt Rosa would cook; burned and inedible.

_Is something wrong, little hero?_ The familiar voice of Gaea whispered into his ears. _You resemble a flat tire, worn out and stripped of it's purpose. You won't be winning any wars for me in such a state._

Leo wanted to tell her -rather rudely- an alternative of 'get the hell away', but didn't want Piper or Jason to know that the earth goddess was speaking to him. Trying to kill everyone was horrible on it's own, but chatting with the enemy was definitely worse, he figured.

_Speak to me, little hero. Your friends don't trust you anyway, what difference will it make?_ Gaea pushed, her voice becoming more urgent with every word. Even after she spoke, her words echoed around in his brain, repeating themselves and bouncing around inside his mind.

His head began to throb, and within seconds Leo had a splitting headache. It was as if someone was taking a jackhammer straight to his skull, giving everything they've got to crack it open.

"Ow," Leo groaned, bringing his head in to his hands. "Stop."

_We have a deadline, Leo Valdez, but whether I have my two sacrifices on August first or not, your fate lies with me._

"No. It. Doesn't."

_Work with me, little hero, and your friends shall live. Work against me, however, and I promise you that none of your fates will be pretty. You'll watch all of them burn in your own flames, screaming and crying about how you betrayed them, how you failed them yet again. They should be expecting it by now, but I suppose the stupid never learn._

"You can't do that. You're... you're still asleep..."

_Oh?_

Suddenly, Leo felt as if he had been pulled into an entirely different world. There was no warning, no pauses, it was simply that one moment he had been buckling from his headache to standing in a sea of fire.

Almost as quickly came the screaming. At first it had sounded like it was in only one direction, then it would switch and Leo would struggle to locate it, and then all at once the screams flooded his ears, pouring in from all directions.

"Stop!" Leo cried, covering his ears with his hands. "Stop it! Enough!"

No doubt, his outbursts seemed to have only made the situation worse. The screaming grew louder, more intense, it was so loud now that he couldn't even hear the crackling of the flames that were right beside him.

"Leo!" A familiar voice called, one that Leo immediately recognized as Hazel. "Why are you doing this?"

The boy turned to see Hazel being swallowed by the fire. She tried to crawl toward him, but with every move she made the flames wrapped themselves more. Leo tried to reach out to her, but before he could get there in time, Hazel's body vanished into ashes.

Before Leo could recover, a new voice took Hazel's place.

"Valdez!" Percy shouted. Leo whipped around and saw Percy, who was desperately trying to fight off flaming monsters. "You created these to kill us," The son of Poseidon called as one of the creatures clawed at his back. "Why?"

"I..." Leo faltered, stumbling over to try and help his friend. "I don't know!" Just as it happened with Hazel, Percy's body turned into ashes before Leo could fully reach him.

One by one, Leo witnessed his friends die before him. Annabeth had been devoured by fire serpents, Frank had fallen in to a river of lava, Jason had been surrounded by a storm of flames, vanishing in the heat long before Leo could try to help.

Lastly, Leo saw Piper.

"You don't have to kill me," She was saying, scrambling on the ground to get away from him. "I know what you did to the others, but I can try to help you, alright? You can put an end to this now!"

Leo tried to reach out, but as his hands moved in front of him, flames shot from his palms and straight towards Piper.

"No!" Leo shouted, pulling his hands back. "No! Piper, Piper are you okay?"

Unlike the others, the girl didn't form into ashes right away. Her eyes searched for him for a few seconds, and when they landed on his face, Piper said the words Leo didn't want to hear.

"You're a monster, Leo Valdez." She choked, then was gone.

_Do you believe me now?_ Gaea cooed, her voice dulling the flames until all that was left around him was ashes and embers.

Leo had to force himself not to cry. He had to remind himself that was he was seeing wasn't real. His friends were... well, he didn't know if it was true for four of them, but Piper and Jason were perfectly alright.

_That can be changed very quickly, little hero._ Gaea spoke, as if she had been reading his thoughts. _Taking them away from you would be as simple as angering Zeus. But, if you brought a boy and a girl to Athens for me... no one has to get hurt._

No one has to get hurt... Leo tossed those words around in his mind, considering the possibility.

"You're lying." He finally said, biting his lip. Of course she was lying. She was trying to rule the world, why _wouldn't_ she slip in bits of false information to get her way?

_No, no. _Gaea murmured. _What I tell you is the truth. I have no personal hatred for any of the members of the prophecy. Although their deaths may be helpful, I can accomplish my goals without having the children die._

"But what about the sacrifices?"

_I simply need their blood... a cut on the arm shall do._

Leo couldn't lie; he was feeling pretty tempted by the idea. If it was really only blood that Gaea needed, then... well, no one would get hurt (aside from getting the blood part, that is). Sure, the earth goddess would fully wake and cause all kinds of chaos, but...

What was he thinking?

"No." Leo seethed. "No way! You think I'd really fall for that? I'm not stupid! ... _You're_ stupid!"

For a few seconds that felt like hours, Gaea was silent. As Leo waited for her response, he felt waves of fear gnawing inside his stomach, making him want to crumble over and throw up.

_Very well._ The goddess growled, the earth beneath Leo's feet beginning to shake. _You may have it your way, Leo Valdez. But I promise you this: in the end you shall serve me, and your world shall soon shatter. Now that you have rejected my requests, do not plead for my mercy when I am to rise._

As soon as she stopped talking, Leo blinked once and found himself back with Jason and Piper. Both were looking at him as if he were completely crazy.


	14. Leo: XIV :Comfort

**The Problem With Leo Valdez**  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: _All characters[aside from a few OC's] belong to RR._  
><em>Leo Valdez is-unfortunately- not my creation as with the other demigod characters.<em>  
><em>They're pretty cool, though.<em>  
><em>Good job, Rick.<em>

**A/N**: I HAVE BEEN AWAY FOR A VERY LONG TIME BUT I AM BACK NOW MY FRIENDS  
><em>if this chapter is short shhhh don't be mad I'm sorry<em>

THANK YOU FOR THE VERY KIND REVIEWS AND ALL THE FAVOURITES

(BTW I'm hoping to have this story come to an end soon. It ain't gonna be happy, but we'll find out what happened to Frank at least!)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter: XIV<strong>  
><strong>Leo<strong>

_Comfort_

"What was that?" Piper demanded.

"... What?" Leo asked. He knew what she meant, and he would have explained if it weren't for the throbbing ache that had started back up in his head...

Had Gaea really meant what she said? She'd leave him alone for good now? The boy wasn't sure that he trusted the freaky goddess and her 'show no mercy' threat had certainly shaken him, but if the whole being possessed nonsense was over now, surely there was nothing to worry about. Right?

"_That_! I don't know!" Piper cried, waving her arms in the air. "You were... uh-"

"Mumbling?" Jason said. The word sounded like a question, like he wasn't sure of it himself. "Rambling? You looked like you were freaking out, man."

'Freaking out' was a light way to put it, Leo thought. He had just seen his friends die because of him, angered an evil goddess, and probably triggered the total and absolute destruction of the world. Illusion or not, what had happened was terrifying.

"Gaea." He managed out, squeezing his eyes shut when another bolt of pain flared up in his head. "She, uh, she talked to me about some... things."

Even with his eyes closed, Leo could tell that Jason was giving him a questionable look. "Things?"

"Ya know... important business-y stuff."

Piper sighed. "Can you be more specific, please?"

Leo opened his eyes and glanced at her. "I called her stupid. May have made her pretty upset. We're all gonna die if we don't win this thing." He summerized, then forced a grin. "But, on the bright side, I think the Eidolon business has been taken care of." _Maybe_, he added silently in his head. He wasn't sure about that one, but hopefully Gaea would stop turning him into a puppet now that he had put his foot down.

* * *

><p>Leo told Piper and Jason everything. From what Gaea had said, to watching all his friends die, and to what the earth goddess had told him near the end of the vision. Percy, Annabeth, and Hazel had come back midway through Leo's explanation, Annabeth saying that when she had woken up she wanted to search for Hazel, so Leo had to restart and tell it all over again.<p>

"That's it?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. "There wasn't, like, any huge details that you're leaving out or anything?"

"Nothing about..." Hazel faltered, then she cleared her throat and continued. "Nothing about Frank?"

Leo shook his head. "Just that she wants us all dead."

Annabeth scowled. "Gods, I hate her more than Hera." She muttered, then turned to Hazel and put a hand reassuringly on her arm. "We'll find out what happened to Frank soon, I promise."

Hazel stiffened. "We already know what _happened_." She said, her voice cold. "I just want to know where he is."

Though she didn't mention him directly, Leo felt a wave of guilt wash over him. Still, if he had done anything to Frank, surely he would have remembered it, wouldn't he? Surely hacking up or setting a big guy like him on fire wasn't a very easy thing to miss, but who knew? Maybe he _did_ kill Frank. He had tried to strangle Annabeth, after all.

"What's most important right now is knowing if the Eidolon is gone." Jason said as he struggled to get to his feet. He stumbled, and instantly Piper was by his side, helping him up.

Leo gave a sheepish laugh. "And _how_ exactly are we supposed to do that?"

Percy grinned. "We throw rocks." He said as he picked one up and tossed it between his hands.

"_What_?"

"That's a terible idea." Annabeth dismissed, whacking the boy on the arm. "We just have to try and trigger the Eidolon, and if nothing works then... I guess it's not here."

Percy frowned. "We could trigger the stupid thing if we throw rocks at him!"

"No, Percy. That could hurt him."

"That's the point!"

"_Percy_." Annabeth growled. "It's a terrible idea."

And would hurt, Leo wanted to chip in. If he had it his way, he would have chosen to not try anything at all. What if the Eidolon turned out to still be there? What would his friends do with him _then_? They hardly had any time before Gaea planned to rise, fixing the ship would take way too long even if they got started on it today... surely they'd leave him behind to make things easier. It'd be better with no Leo than with him trying to murder everyone, after all.

"I guess we could try it..." Leo sighed, going against his better judgement. If they didn't, then he figured that things would be a whole lot worse.

Annabeth stared at him. She looked a little annoyed that he had sided with Percy and his (definitely terrible, Leo agreed) idea, but she took in a breath and stood up, and then the others did the same. "No harm in trying."

Jason raised his eyebrows. "We're really just going to throw a bunch of stones at him like that?"

"What else would you like us to do?" Hazel muttered. "Set him on fire instead?" As she spoke, she was picking up rocks and had three in her arms already. Leo felt his stomach turn, imagining what it would feel like to be hit by one of those bad boys.

It'd probably hurt.

"No, but-" Jason began saying, though Hazel cut him off.

"We have to _hurt_ him for this to work, Jason." She snarled. "I don't like it either, but I'm not going to question it."

Jason furrowed his eyebrows and glanced over at Leo, who in return shrugged his shoulders and mouthed the words '_what gives_?'

She was upset about Frank, he knew that, but it felt like that Hazel was on board with the rock throwing idea solely because it meant getting him back for what happened. That wasn't cool. At all. It actually kind of stung a bit.

As Hazel continued to walk away, Leo moved to catch up with her. When he did, she didn't even look at him.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No, of course not. Why?"

"You seem kinda mad."

"Well I'm not."

"Is it about Frank?"

Hazel stopped walking and crossed her arms over her chest, though to Leo it looked more like she was hugging herself. He got the feeling that he shouldn't have asked that, but her reply made him glad he did. "Yes."

"... Do you want to talk about it?"

A few seconds of Hazel looking as if she was going to burst into tears later, she nodded her head and collapsed to the ground. "What if he's dead?" She started to sob, then got embarrassed and quickly wiped the tears away. "It's not fair for me to be mad at you, I know. No one can even tell what happened to him, but just imagining that you did– you _could_ have done it, or did it..."

The others were looking at them now, definitely wondering what Hazel was so sad about and why Leo was standing there awkwardly, but he waved them away and they all scattered to collect more rocks. Thank the gods. He didn't think he could have handled an audience.

Not knowing what else to do, Leo sat down. "I don't like thinking that I did it, either." He admitted before realizing that that much was fairly obvious. "I've tried to murder all of you guys now, with me probably behind the ship crash and all. Like, hey! I even attacked New Rome and started a war! Who _knows _how many people I hit?" Leo laughed, then he went serious. "I don't want Frank's blood on my hands, too."

Hazel gave what Leo took as a laugh, though to be completely honest he couldn't tell. "I understand that it wasn't you, but at the same time it _was _and-"

"You don't need to explain yourself, Hazel. I get that you think of me as some crazed murderous monster now. It's okay."

"I'm just scared."

"Of me? Yeah, I get it. I am too."

Hazel shook her head. "No, of _everything_. I want to go back to Camp Jupiter and hang out with my friends again, Leo. None of us on this quest are even adults yet, and we're trying to save the world."

"Stuff like this happens because it's supposed to." Leo assured her. He heard his mother say those words countless times and they used to give him a little bit of comfort, so maybe it would do the same to Hazel? Life was bad because someday it would be good... eventually. "The gods have everything planned out. They know what they're doing." Except that they _don't_, but a little lying never hurt anyone.

"I think that's a dumb way to look at things." A new voice said, one that belonged to Piper. Leo hadn't heard or seen her sneak up on them, but suddenly she was standing between him and Hazel and was talking like she had been there the whole time. "Don't get me wrong, it's nice and sweet, but the way I see it, we're in this on our own. Our parents might check in once in awhile, but who really cares? They've got like a hundred other kids to keep up with."

Leo frowned. "I was trying to be wise."

"Yeah, well your wisom sucks, Valdez. Leave that to Annabeth." Piper laughed. "Hazel, listen to me. I can't guarantee that everything is going to turn out okay or if we'll be able to get Frank back, but if we stick together I believe that we've at least got a shot. Are you happy with that?"

Hazel nodded.

"Great. Now let's get on with throwing rocks at our little Wise Man here."


	15. Piper: XV :Leo Gets Stoned

**The Problem With Leo Valdez**

**DISCLAIMER: **None of the characters belong to me. You can thank Rick Riordan for their epic-ness.

**A/N:** I have been gone for a ridiculously long time and for that I apologize. I remember writing and finishing this chapter, but apparently I decided to delete it because it's gone and now I have to rewrite everything. Not that it was any good, but having it ready certainly would have saved some time. This chapter is also very short, but please enjoy this long-overdue mess that I am presenting.

I'm bad with deadlines ok.

I'm also in the mood to just rewrite the entire story because, reading through it again, I've realized how terrible of a writer I was (not that I'm any better now but like, I was horrible). Maybe I'll fix each chapter one by one... eh.

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER: XV<strong>  
><strong>PIPER<strong>

_Leo Gets Stoned_

Leave it to Percy Jackson and Jason Grace to find joy in pelting a close friend with stones. To go with that, leave it to Leo Valdez to get a kick out of having rocks thrown at his shins. Even when he had one chucked at his face Valdez was grinning like a madman, which probably wasn't that far off from reality.

Piper McLean could barely watch. At first she had thought that Jason, the most reasonable person out of the group besides Annabeth, would object to such an idea. She had thought that he, being the son of Jupiter, would say _"Hey! This is a terrible idea and lets not do it!" _and that there was no way he would agree. He had sort of been against it when Percy proposed the idea, hadn't he? Surely he'd still reject it after giving it some thought, too.

Piper McLean was dead wrong.

It was Jason and Percy, laughing with eachother and grinning, that were most avid in the attempts to see if the Eidolon was still lurking around in Leo. Hazel may have thrown one, Annabeth none, and Piper was juggling a rock in her hands, debating on whether or not she should to it.

"Hit me, Beauty Queen!" Leo hooted at her. He tapped his upper arm. "Right here! Aim for here!"

Piper didn't understand why he was so enthusiastic about it.

She closed her eyes and gave the rock a good chuck. Not even a second later did she hear a loud '_OOF_' followed by a _thump!_ and then Percy breaking out into laughter while Jason muffled his. Piper pried open an eye, scared of what she was about to see.

There layed Leo rolling over on the ground, clutching his stomach. "I said the _arm_! You hit me in the gut!"

Annabeth and Hazel each giggled.

"Does it hurt?" Piper asked, hurrying over beside Leo. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Whaaat? Naaah. Just a lil' bit."

"Sorry."

"It's cool. Help me up."

She offered him a hand and then pulled him to his feet. Leo rubbed his stomach before giving Piper a pat on the shoulder.

"Join softball or something. Got a killer arm." He advised, then turned his attention back to the other boys. He proceeded to ask if there were any more rocks left, looking only slightly disappointed when Jason replied back with a yes. Then, without warning, Percy hit him in the forehead with a pebble.


	16. Apologies

I haven't been updating recently and I apologize greatly for that, and I think that it's only fair for me to let you guys know that I'll no longer be continuing this fanfiction.

Thank you to all of my readers who've shown continued support, I really appreciate it! I didn't think people would like this story as much as they did and I feel terrible for cancelling it, but in these past few months I've really had no motivation to do anything and the story was getting nowhere.

Maybe I'll come back to rewrite it someday, but right now I'm marking it as 'complete' and will probably disappear on this site for awhile.

-Yours, Adamus


	17. Super Update (woah!)

Hey, guys!

I've been gone for quite awhile, ahaha. A really long while.

Like, forever.

At least it feels that way.

I want you guys to know that I'll be editing the previous chapters for this story over the next few months. I like to think that my writing has gotten better, so before I continue writing any more chapters I want to make sure that everything else is nice and the way I want it. Some things might change (lotsa things, I dunno) but as I'm relying on mobile because my computer is broken, things are going to be moving very slow.

Anyway! I guess the point of this is just to let you guys know that I'm back and coming the next few months I'll be back for good!

SUPER UPDATE WOAHOAHA

I tried writing chapters on here on mobile and I can't stand it. It's 20/10 frustrating.

Because of this unforeseen difficulty, I'll probably (most likely) be switching over to Wattpad until I can get my computer fixed. I'll let you guys know once I'm ready to continue writing chapters, so check back soon!


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